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Webb, Aquilla, b. 1870. 
LOO bo TLUuSBtrarions (Lon 
pulpit and platform 









Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https ://archive.org/details/1001 illustrationOOwebb 


1001 ILLUSTRATIONS 
FOR 
PULPIT AND PLATFORM 


REV. AQUILLA WEBB, p.p., LL.p. 





1001 ILLUSTRATIONS 
BOR PULPID AND «01 
PLATFORM ;<3*“" aie 


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gs ‘ 
“ED wt 
x sow Wes 
BY COGICAL SERS 


ERY EAQULIEPA (WEBB. pipinip.. 


With Introduction by 
JOHN F. CARSON 


NEW ba YORK 


GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT, 1926, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


1001 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR PULPIT AND PLATFORM 
ee Py 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


TO THE MEMORY OF THE 
REV. J. WILBUR CHAPMAN, D.D., 
WHO SUGGESTED THE FIRST “ONE 


THOUSAND” THIS “SECOND THOUSAND” 
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 


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INTRODUCTION 


The introduction of Doctor Webb to his many friends would be but 
an empty tribute to conventional formality. Another notable achieve- 
ment by him, however, merits recognition and deserves an appreciation 
that will be welcomed by these same friends. 

When Doctor Webb issued his first Book of Illustrations he ren- 
dered to his fellow ministers a service of great value. He had been 
long enough in the ministry to feel the burden that rests upon the 
minister of the Gospel who, in addition to his pastoral work, must pre- 
pare new addresses for each succeeding week of his ministry. He had 
learned, as all of us must do, that spiritual truth may be the more 
impressed upon the hearer by some clear illustration that helps to make 
its meaning plain. Our Lord followed such method of teaching, and no 
loftier example of teaching is conceivable. 

Doctor Webb, in gathering together so many beautiful illustrations 
of truth, expended time and labor that could be justified only by the 
realization of the ideal that inspired him. 

The fact that the other book found ready and almost immediate 
circulation must have suggested to the author that his work had not 
been done in vain and must have convinced him, too, that another 
volume of like kind would be equally valued by his fellow workers. 

The new volume that now comes from his pen has for its highest 
commendation the unquestioned success of the other. The book is no 
mere repetition of the former work, but is one that has the added 
value acquired by the experience in the preparation of the first. 

Doctor Webb, richly endowed as an evangelistic preacher, has 
sought with earnestness for gems of thought that would make his own 
ministry more effective and has shown a fine discrimination in the 
selection chosen for this volume. 

No mere human mind would be able to elaborate such parables of 
exquisite beauty as Jesus used to. illustrate His thought; and no human 
experience is broad enough to enable a man, however close and sym- 
pathetic his relation may be to his fellow man, to derive from such 
experience the vital and interesting facts that serve to illumine spir- 
itual truth. We are all, therefore, bound to draw from the varied 
treasures that have been accumulated by others. 

From such storehouse of spiritual wisdom Doctor Webb has drawn 
the illustrations in this book, and he sends it forth with desire and hope 
that his brethren, concerned as he also is for the conversion of sinners, 
may find in it some suggestive thought that may help to lead their 


hearers to the faith of Christ. 
Joun F. Carson. 


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FOREWORD 


After printing the “One Thousand Evangelistic Illustrations,” letters 
of appreciation came from ministers all over the country, and almost 
without exception they expressed the hope that I would prepare an- 
other thousand. 

Such illustrations cannot be gathered in a few weeks or a few 
months. They come naturally in the search for material in the prepara- 
tion for my own evangelistic services. It has taken more than four 
years to gather together the illustrations set forth in this volume. In 
this labor a number of brother ministers have given helpful suggestions, 
chief of whom is the Rey. Carlisle L. Hubbard, D.D., a most successful 
evangelistic pastor. 

Illustrations are of great value when they really illustrate. One 
would not want to live in a house without windows, neither are ser- 
mons able to flood the average hearer with light without timely illus- 
trations. Especially in an appeal for an open decision for Christ, a 
timely illustration is most effective. Go into any evangelistic service, 
whether conducted by a professional evangelist or by a minister in his 
own church, and the preaching is as different as personalities differ. 
But all have one thing in common—effective illustrations in driving 
home the truth for an immediate open decision. In after meetings, 
when experiences are given, it is quite common to hear some convert 
recite some illustration in the sermon conclude, “I just had to give 
my heart to Christ.” 

Perhaps a word of caution should be given in the use of illustra- 
tions. In the beginning of my ministry an old minister was a member 
of my congregation. He finally became too ill to attend services and 
I then went to his home and read my sermons to him. He was always 
helpful in his suggestions. One day he asked me which I admired 
most—a woman with a great many cheap rings on her fingers or a 
lady with one or two beautiful solitaires. The point was well taken 
and I pass it on to my brethren. 

My prayer is that these illustrations may be a blessing to all the 
brethren in the ministry who are endeavoring to lead souls to an open 


decision for Christ. 
AQUILLA WEBB. 





SUBJECT INDEX 


ATONEMENT 


MTONRMENT-—ACCEPTED 056 be a a er 
ATONEMENT A CLEANSING FOUNTAIN..........ccccecce 
PE PUNEMENT——“LESPIGING. siete ob bt Ye a eee ae 


PecUPANOH es OSTH AND .L OUND) city Nieoiste shies Mace. Ebtie oe ee 
MISE CCC UITES Sie LIDS ga. ais ea ne ee cen ep hee 
SEW iG) Unie OF ICY = Rn ER ate a As ORCA IDOE: Urea ls a biota LS 
Doe gc ERG a ter Ea OA ARR al AD OOM BRUNE Bo SLs SUR A RM FUN 
(Sour T—— WARREN LIASTINGS 2) De ue ae ek kre 
Be merc At oer TS TPT 11 ESCM Wo aceite RR ta DEAE Ree rhe ey) fo 
aterer te TACTIC TNT S irene haus UO ay at as smn WY rh Ed 
We eweCeeee BOPERA LANGE TY ee tote, Fol oy Es bias a hie bytes Vey foe 
tye VORTING) RESENCE sic Milels soled tai ey hed a edna 2 


BIBLE 


ESET SAD CA oo gore erp esc yi iy es OD aN Re Py 
PORTAL) WO ree ROR ARMM eM a eT te iad ae 
PRPrAt eis AIST etIOT AO wo AT alt eet a heed Sia lale.o ote wage totes 
RES eAMTY ry eT EC Ee Ect Cr eee Aik Sac ole Liu'd + win, o leeuentorats 
PELE Perit Ut NICs SEES fee lla Ula cieteic bias bleu 
Bratt AMELIE IN aa re eo a al ae 
Pa RN Seee MOEN UT YET CO) frre re eit hk, Naty s a’ dippatea CRTaRL 


xii SUBJECT INDEX 


PAGE 
BIBLE tDiRrICuirei7s BRiO Che Peder hie une lon Oe eae 48 
BIBLE DIPRICULEIESI Ley segiiter tut mini, Galo’, "cle on 48 
BIBLES SUTRST No eee ene Mea eee ae hil tae eke ea, Gn, a 48 
BiBvEe+~—FPOLLOWINGITMEGinis tected stoceae wee Baie tes ick we ee ae 48 
Bripnn-—PORSAKING THE ald yao oo Ok idee cytes aie pid) a loeias 49 
BIBLE -SHALPUE READING Ey a halt elubae che sales oie ately ieee 49 
BIBLE HOLDING FO: THEM ater coke pidiaeaie tes a/b alt) oak aden ena 49 
BIBLE -INDRESPRUCTIBLE Motch waa e Lana ets cere alee ae 50 
BIBLE LTsi ON WATNESSE ewe kh aie corte etal alanete ale Svinte ae 50 
BiBte SEAR y POGAR SA ni ish Bsuie Clee eh atoms fereeaael: Crane 51 
BIBLE LTGH DION yk orto tity tole al eit adec CoRR OMNI a) eek eaten 51 
BIBLE--LOVING ‘THE: AUTHOR) OF iy ob2 PONS ee ae 51 
BIBER ANIODERN 2050.00. Guaalslete hee bok tena are keel rare 51 
BIBLE VRBADING Sil hate iv oer oe COE cee cla a aie Naan or Ait Re 
BIBLE READING DATE Ye Vig 2) Cae ake aie a een cz 
BIBLE HA HE YE ERSONAL Ok a ocuilyweuae Sitti 4 oC ata en 52 
BIBLE SWAY OR LIFE Mia. ave ie ile athe o)) aes Reena 53 
BIBLE WISDOM OBA hidse Giak mrnh bates eee ene Toten ene 53 
BIBiE WORD, OF LIBRE N Puc Sih ls Wm ie ei ant ee eae 53 
DOANGER OBER ING 1) Li tul Un ea seis 4c Rene Ae Deen nee e eae aae 53 
SOD SWORD POWRRRUDG © y miwu dy) iG lee vag, (on 5 st eee 54 
LAMB'S; BOOK OR LIFEIR Ge oer nO, Clee 54. 
DA W—-PERER CT ii Uo 20: qe emt SR cle ty need aaa ieee a ae ee 54 
LTE OTGN OR S's tal drala een) ere Brean grea OamMl en 54 
SWORD GR) THE WORD 2) Vth et ht TUN vei eran cao aaats ane 55 

BROTHERHOOD 
BROTH BOA LEBIY averse Wane tanita tie ies Css rie ee aa 55 
BROTHER-—HELBING A \WEAK 11/75/00 st smn finial epee eden 55 
DROTHER-—TLELPING ‘BLIND usc h oe tvs ie eine ae 55 
BROTHERHOOD 0! ibe e's cis tule mpi be keg a 56 
DEEDS, AND (CREEDS oo Wo Gaiters tne Cnty a ca 56 
DEEDS--POWER -OF (GOOD Un on fee chee eee ee 56 
COREEDSAND | DRED if bh) fone td Rl Ais eG ed Re 57 
RELLOWSHIP A ARTHUY:.\0 oe ok ata ciara elt eae tale ak 57 
ORTON D rok LAPT EU. a ates) eer aa eee a 57 
ENE LUE NOE LESSED io dN poet eh eRiLt allel Tal Bilan iy a 58 
MANS NALUB Gh ciel wh ate Cre lo wice BeBe wie at el eo tee oe 58 
RETIGION SAP RACTICAD vi) Kad oe 1 Wintel dah eke la 58 
RIGHTEOUSNESS “GARMENTS OF) 21.) 1) Gh\'elsis ls ik 5 cance 58 
OYMPATH yes DARING 5.00 048 i We ae. Gls 59 
WEARER EPING THES) i Mo. ae a a enn ye Gwe ee 59 
CHILDREN 

CHARACTERS; BEAUTY (OR 412s cailaiam stern a ais eid aaa an eee 59 
CHILD LEADING Ae By n's.s sate a ales eee eat ety eeu tater an 59 


SUBJECT INDEX Xu 


PAGE 
Re eMD ee CATIAS! ORG fa yee0.s i's, 0 Ted a ee Ae baa cate we eae 60 
SP OE ELIS VIEN eSNG Lia Saigo 45.4 ¢ soa: 4g nlaee oldie aati ol ee sinh, 60 
RISE ESCA TEIN ile eS iwc wale oe tee ee 60 
RPIAE a Riety | OTE AND hilo 5 og ooh. Sacale edie Aiden 61 
PRA A EPRRIONG POOR ATO TG 50g oi fod oes cece cif AREAL Rte Dee 61 
ON VERSA RION OF CRIT DREN Ula te Crt en 61 
ORSENUER: UF THE DEEENCELBESS 3). 45:5 2.00 cob aa ew neek 61 
ENTHUSIASM KILLED.......... Soa ciea ke nun Sky hae Tene a 62 
Re LSE OM ES Tylon ec so py Gis eos adie ea ae 62 
Meer reat Cll srs whales tcl fac a aN nha ae 62 
DEERE -U NCONSOIOUS 12084 wie ee lade. Wie ee aa 63 
PI ReperEGY AUN Uden Re tag aN e hie ee MN 63 
Fekete AAS es 2 re WUOHA PRi SU) glace Hiden AMAL ie DO ne ne att 63 
CAL UT One sr a yo tau Nieto uge: aki ay ESOL ROS 
EUSA GN peed 7 Ward gaia ae IRC oA LO WA a RR 64. 
EMEP OO LMR ERR ED Uke, cu ih ee Ming aN Sy) «Div H sate 64. 
DR el BRSISTON Tse tins paresis wkiity Ear ek ats ho a oat 64. 
AB EN 8g OFA SL Ing Any A SEAL OMT REL: URL Fo U'R0 1S, SHR ars I ra 64. 
SS RIBULATIONS~|OVEUL IN soy fe kb eta ke gee ore h a wet a es a4 65 
PERE EARCTING: FORT) sk tui ehene rie tele slate hice Lowi 65 

CHRIST 

IOC eA TEMS el dete ete MCW Le CL Rt rk vate a Nn) 65 
Curist A MAGNET. ...... DE Sameer eeawi sen irae Wie ca ta UES 66 
ERI et ONDESCENSIONOR a! Vou a hen Gok ee beta 66 
eset PUR INIA Ta ee CO RON ge is uae es eee a 66 
DPR tereneU TENG ye eee ce OOM, ho eb di mie 67 
ARIS TILING Poorest home cb ioe bas yes 67 
ied A CG ReOMVa Urn he uscd. mh ntl AG vee, atl 67 
Soot ioe PRG ged Di BETES ALOR Daa Oe U noa ea do or 67 
PEM oii We SU MG CMa erty Re uM Cw Onl eek HEA Oo hig s 68 
Oe ERT EN ED, Mra fey atic ena RT ANA eY 9 U4 9 o's 68 
PO GER AEN OR RT be a a a a 68 
ese CIVE RUN A i emi es Wn ate RnR, LESS With Pe 69 
eee ETRE ORO ON, ay Dat pe deetmeb yall tei. Sb, 9 
(OSCE tL HTD) 4Y 8 RR ne at Os A aa SL I oe EL 2 Na aes 69 
SE eT SERS TOUTE ate OREN Cy Calita Sui BBall » dle + ya aks 69 
IRIE To NOH ANGING St Wot RIP Ee Pia eu ties we 4 70 
IGRI At MAA TT eh pane Utes 70 
CSR ELT Skee a HCPA we He ks ih oe ae eins wR aes 71 
TEM yg Sa Wee aa fire 2 RS eR ORL PS Ze a OR 71 
Breet eer Vy ATTEN BOR hh hi AON di aides da placa 6 lela whdleets 71 
CRSA REACHIUOB YC BRAGEDY. uit nkd sis aie «ais exalted oe eee aT 
CROCS REORM LAROUGH oii wt iic dis: single sola © ba lbletelyts wiate 72 
Rieter WORLD) IN MEDS THE ta Sc aig ka sck + gids Seuelndlp wipes 72, 


XIV SUBJECT INDEX 


PAGE 
HIOPE-— LHE “ONLY 49 08 Gy pees eat ooo fells ae ee 7 
PSUS A PILOT 5 Ay eee digits WAS da fated vy SAPapd Wg eaten sea 73 
JESUST- DIVINITY OF hey ek ck keh Oe tb vee See 73 
‘Jesus—-IN)} RUACE OR DNGas ia hy: sci Saute teeters 0 a 73 
J HSUSTHKING MAO eC Uys ae eat Abas aan er 74. 
‘Tesus; LOVER OR My BOUn SRA Oh) Ja) duck ae ss Fee 74. 
RESUS MISEAREN FOR CUM y kro vhs cats os ces an 74 
JESUS IN AMEAORT} oyu datas uty is Aik Wore ass Ss 75 
| HSUS-OEARCHING FORLGA Us s Vicve needs «0 see 75 
JESUS WWATTING VT CUniy yo AVON uae x bidet Morals = el ee 75 
JESUS eo WIALSENGEROR GP AE iio te uk ices oe fiiey, Pc a 76 
PRSUSASWIORE GOEL Cs ital bus ee Eras sn een de olaee bene manne 76 
TSING or BIN EE Bi Gy Av otis aias Ra lel ase Wedel eck ones pata a 76 
LOVALIV=OPOWER ‘OF Sch sles ane Gea C Sige ee Sas i 
WEXSEERUAND PUPIL 2) 5s) ea nore ies sal ates be oe 77 
NEED IB TOR Sod HE Wey clot a gy epee ce coiee 77 
Mircsaru-TNCOMPLETEN) a0.) ova G ute Pu te) ee 78 
PALOTE-OROPRPING (THe gen uy Tagan wee 2 4a 78 
PROMISES, Ut site bale Ci yeiltcba we hate rented lcrtt tact! ciel een 79 
RIGHTEOUSNESS——H UNGER FOR = 200.5. anu). sale we 
WACRIFICE—_HRIST-LIKE vei Mts, fal. Guiet vk nine besa pene ee 79 
SAVIOR DISCOVERY. OBe lotta aie whee sk oy ces ae 79 
DAVIOR- ORARCHING FOR AUG UR y iis leita h tale Ste Veen ee 79 
SAVIOR Sr LW Odin te wie MR 27 yaa a kate gree at ae a 80 
SAVIOUR AS GREAT eta ra nape: Oi. ese ty fone eal 80 
SUPFERING: FOR CHRIST O00 ol Gieniiaalyias oi sip © ar ema 80 
LEE DONG (OR AVE RATHI 21 Ll eee an fvae ana hed ae 81 
WicTORY OVER MODDS 3). canis sate aes Beeps He a) fis eects SI 

CHRISTIANS 

RELIEVERS EP ADETY oie. uacuabid ois clastic ae 142 
GHRISTIANTS TL GENUINE » yh Olatels wares ieee es he a 142 
CHRISTIAN RURLOUGH 4. Graiom eis peiereeeeicleta nia et vac ee 142 
CHRISTIAN--N ARROW, si\c-/acdeoureinn ttc Renu tan 5. oie 142 
CHRISTIAN ="EROSTRATE.. Wb aiaaiensicu nite. Riant, =: 142 
CGHRISTIAN-—-REJOICING 2 2 bat Dl eeu idee Glee de tls Ce 142 
EQUALITY BEFORE Hint. iuini) Gets sages ns 143 
SENTIMENT--CHRISTIAN) Livi. arias onde Galas ys). 143 
CHRISTIAN! UNITY. Fae ith np wenn oie. ss 143 
CHRISTIAN “WV HY) DEVA Uh 4 4 iis 4 bide ed ee 143 
CHRISTIANITY s- CONCEALED Fic olin ie Oy ne sett a 144. 
CHRISTIANITY CHINECESSARY.. i). :01s,s0a) land iy «te ae 144 
CHRISTIANITY se PRACTICAL tc of Nstereitigms (ne J eee et eee 144 
CHRISTIANS+coNBSORBING o's 14 fs nsdn Sie ein date aot ae 144 
CHRISTIANS 7 -AGGREOSIVE «iin t din)s ty alot ott 5 nuns eens aed 145 


CHRISTIANS. URDEN iy! e's. «135119 1ey ala Gali ans Malaita shy gitar ia 145 


SUBJECT INDEX XV 





PAGE 
CHRISTIANS—CONFORMING....... a ae ee Sete ge CA 
SUSIE TANS SRAY 5a" foe sist, too 5 4} tle SUE OES 145 
RRRTEE LANG LRA ZY Ed oe SAV vA w S154 4 ol gg ea eet 145 
ee INT TANG OIMARTHLY , oo a's 6. ova Scale Sa Cn 146 
RSH RIBITANS OE RIENDILY Gi aids sac a )b.5- bl Uae eee vena 146 
Lor IA NE ASRO WING Tl) t yore #4 sa leks \teek. Pam eeu ae 146 
(SH eTIANseRLONHS Tees SOG Me Po! oo ee 146 
RPI TIA NS —OLNO LUPE R IN TO 5. ogi :hn cove’ x! doe viata te ptane es 147 
SiS ETA Rit EONAR J). ai les WAS hai o deel ea 147 
Perare LN ereree GING Une LAN mile) ee. Vs ot ca Ne ae 147 
RON CLAN MILLEN Ape ty. tite ye Se en 8 NL 148 
Gere iaMe ra TRURGLINGH, sabia wee tr sa sins (dai nie eee 148 
PEPER IOLA WSs CUNT Nini ete a Ly A Lok hei food cane on aie ae 148 
Reet A NGL PMPEBING uae d a stedt pedo es wees 148 
[aA RIs TANS 5-U WPROGRHSELYV Eo teil och Geiiet Wi ici a nce We ee 148 
DORIS TIANG VV ORTHURGG.) ttn fet titeltis de Gil cae alien 149 
Setrcag TULA eo OURO ey ia te hc ai. st Tat EMPRESA wi ou Said x 149 
MULT PRIVATE A ie Mh. MGR AN ete Ber ia, MeO 149 
BECOME RIMT HOUT SO) A Ss tire Chaney CN GIN ata gg ait SA i oi oe 149 
RUB MIMG AL TUIRING Ji. d chule il nie be Chen ede Dh aae fale Luprelercie 150 
Nn ag 404 Bip hag 9 A EN eae ia ES oe ARG esr | St DNR te 150 
Sar ACCORDING) TUN, X Chars ys a Yoni ouae aie abn cna) arpier teeta’ I50 
BOREL NCTE ree eke Ore ei Lac oal WRG diel AAC RG BOW ANT Bha Nd 150 
Pu Re AND LIANE Ey Unt nF Aen ebay cok h CUI ait 150 
PEEL ION —— HORMA LI WAY increta y Sa bbuns etertnat ted ess cosh a shear ote ISI 
PaO NO AULT vores) Shu ir atiulitin Ca Me Cah MR gill 4b) abel Seals weesaNY 151 
Ph aD hott eg yc DAS flag at Da AE ing SRA aE ee DN Re Et 151 
PEAT TLONG LU WARDS iihelet Clete yc Gurbickaladel bic tele ®, wads Sous 152 
RIGHTEOUSNESS—APPETITE FOR........0c0ecceeeeees ee 2 
Senray CAT MSP A NUN! Sy Sly ihe \y tala = o>oys has ited ee RO 152 
Gaal As CL INEMETIMTCIN CBMs baer sed ise e eee wie a atlivtas sd © ibe Aca 9 152 
rer em LOW VATE ease rh Mets a Marea Liu. die Pye eta 152 
Retr ee BAI VISION ROR tar tee can via cv eg kVecate woh) ooe'e ps a RE 
AMES HSTORATIONLOS ot idk sala vie wile ee ee ees 153 
POPE YT ATION 0 Sch A Galas Orne ie # <jeny ek ve ee Hea o's 153 
UNFAITHFULNESS OF GOD’S STEWARDS...........2e0000e 153 
EaNee Al USOCR Tem Pe Te ot Ve REE Side ed aie ae cog SEG 154 
OPT ABLES en Od GY 2 UD ya) ce ech, JN a ed ee a 154 
DURCH A La THOURH shen Te Pe rl ee lc ew waa dail 154 
ETA MT RAVER LOGO Se Se al pies viens ick ao ofeca eee 154. 
Dee O HAH SSE UMM RING Sa saat eke i a ieic eae sein ap hera nen 155 
een AT TRMOANCHIN Le yhirds oi tt yin 3 3+ av eee Oe mee 155 
DR IFE HECA LMI \ oc estas laid Betas: 5 lal aig des ana Dipataen 155 
SON UN TAC del BATA S £017 et PRR a PEO i Ee EPS WL Es 156 


Xvl SUBJECT INDEX 


PAGE 
CHURCH —DIGrPURBED 1 hiya Sma et aa oy ly in, Aes 156 
CHURCH—DRAWING........ SAIS te Bay NEN, 4a Re re 156 
GHURCH---FPORGETIING PCL eee Ww ear cing kd, oe) gan ae 157 
CHUBCH—-FROZEN ORO He Ue SR EN st Ay) 157 
CUO RCH CTVIN GE hic ia ae Pe ee a gs ern 157 
CHURCHAGOING WARES TROP eS Ua Pie fou at cy. ie 157 
CHURCH—HINDRANCE IN JOINING). 0.20.0. 0. 00.0022 eos 157 
CHURCH JUDGING: THE ni yoo Ao 2 158 
CHuren’ MEMBERS-—-DA CITY Tea) he hab layics (ls ese ee 158 
CHURCH! MEMBBRG+-HROZENG) “Lym chistes oo. G bids peels we ee 158 
CHURCH MBEMBERG——CILOOMY (aia Ln hou a hates ee Cel es 159 
CHOURCHIMEMBERS—UNTRUB Ha Cie en wi ea ein cane wees 159 
CHURCH IGA VYING 1) 5 Gy.) he Nou arse nt VA, Ns eres ae 159 
CH URG RAINED! OR Gy. C55 yO Ntny Sree net Un ee gag 159 
CHURGH-—FEPRIFTED 0/0), "le ia Weise nee visi rtee yl wy tele gece ee 160 
CHURCH RESPECTABLE: Sit's 224i serene gay ale eae 160 
CHURCH EOALVATION TING Sikiey ou ka tale ne tig cet eae ene 161 
CHURCH OCANDAES IN 1000 Ba snd a eleue pen er ieihe ge) gies 161 
CHURCH TRAMP....... 5s ote pha re oceania rates Ronee a a ee 161 
CHuRCH—TROUBLE IN.........- PE UCR Tae Sa tera nee se ae 162 
CBURCHES+-READI EON Vig Baio fice se onaton so Gla prals SS ee 163 
Crurcres—W ORLDLY, Hy Wee ogc Glee One nr kt 163 
CONFORMING) jos ievem sein ele pe Ss a ey Nae OG Ne Ae A ec es 164 
CONTRARY: PEOPUB Nici Ne Uk Goes SPAUAT Oras: Gm Uracks art rd crotrd be 164 
COROSSHOBNTRADS cual aetee 5 seen R27, (he na 164 
TIONOR=-BADGE OF 6 ihe. ii tu INC en Rar ee 164 
PEW ANCHORED: TO Wyiet G0 caw Bere ae ne ee 165 
WORRY -CURE POR. 4a oa ee ie ae oe 165 

CONFESSION | 
Conrrssion——Ai NOBLE 0:2) RA oan ee en 165 
CONERESION-+--CHRIST S011 ra hen cade ea oe ia ee ee 166 
(CONFESSION OF GINS...) 70). 4 eG eee: omer nee 166 
THE GENERAL CONFESSION..........0000- PRR SERL hea. 167 
CONSCIENCE 

CONSCIENCE -—A) Divi i): :2:0it 9 op See eng sss 167 
CONSCIENCE A WAKENED 054190 70:5 AIO NG is ooo occ 167 
CONSCIENCE——EDUCATED ()f 2.00 ie Gh sa gee ee 168 
CONSCIENCH-— Pa Ub Ty) irc de CI ot ed otk el 168 
CONSCIBNCE--PBARBIIL:.0:):.) J Hierss eiclete a aks «le lie ee 168 
CONSCIENCE--HOODWINKED, 202 pedine nis «> olen einen 169 
CONSCIENCE TINB ALIBI fio ck iswidtite oie /atieie i aeteaii aes 169 
CONSCIENCE-“DEARED cit cicte'n's GL eile de gs hls Grew Eien wane 169 
CONSCIENGET THEVA WARKENED «2. "v\ips bisa p ealeie sible Ril 169 


ConscIENCE, THE GUIDE....... OTA eel uta ase eater «. 170 


SUBJECT INDEX XVil 


PAGE 
UENO TI LIB UL) 2d oe ge OMN ua tieak 170 
tuys Tee bt 9 ig ge Oe) RR a) 4 ¢) AU SD WR 170 

CONSECRATION 
Pa SEA SAO Ua A BURN a BAY Se Yet LE A 171 
ONSECRATION-—COMPLETE py) a ee ok bao Saio ae ait nee ete 17I 
CONSECRATION—DEVELOPMENT OF..............00eeeee 17I 
DB ONRAORATION AUN TIRE ri) cd sss s/s Valve o-byebbal dhs e Mele wadas 172 
POAC RATION ORV LAUENTO Mogi s.b ob d Wiisid el Sse anaes 172 
CONSECRATION-— W HITEFICLD Siu visi stew yb Slee Wve baie 172 
EOEIVOTION——LGNORANT 74 ui iis evi o ik oids Maple os! Psa hg eek 172 
Cie Sd Ee: BES Voy en ae Sede Pee RE Oe aa GO ER Oe 9 A 173 
RAG HING--SACRIPICIAD Use vei tied vid cieysl sofisid a ¥ gain Ha 173 
em Ore MEE LCA TION DRESS Hh iy te taniy ehhae ode lahat. acres ae oa 174 
RUB IGHMIMGH =< HOLIY) OR) 2's diel kale chete eam Gard «ica Sleigh 174 
MUIR rr DACHIBIOIAT V0 0) biclris Ni. RUA mae ss es hl tees 174 
SURRUNUER—AVOMPEETO ts iii oui otha Whe pl napalenelne aiid, 174 
WPONGUB-—-UNCONSECRATED 3). (Pie Sed titan Maa clcle Ole « 174 
MINE LUINE LIVING uit SN ak kewl ee ta eM vaca dG atone 175 
By nse HORSARING >. Uuirwer i Vie ea tine. cianmet AaEE Nhe dy 175 
PA rerks OW AIRTED 40) Za. Wich a hlilel wit bonAeie Ms 6! yr atedet de 9 fa 175 
Pore Memes OITA ETE DN (78. Stans ba a dav Mauenal Bhat Whale: Wel uy slices 175 
CONVERSION 

Te SEAT ME FESO IRR TO OT A a en 176 
ONVERSION AND DANCTIFICATION) 6.) So) UNA ghee th. 176 
PHY ERENT Ay LIOOTOR Sa La icky ae OOM Sere 176 
DAUD 2 TESTED S Gowelg Whol By £8 18 out UN REA al eo LA) eae EAN 177 
CONVERSION—CHARLOTTE ELLIOT’S... 0.0.0.0. 00 ceecee 177 
AN VIR ONIN G > LUA RU Yigis uh ted sh dccuetin sss bd vee tctty eae ahd 177 
PIV ER GION —ERUTT: OE, f3yiais Lak kos Ps koe ay Senta aD we eee 177 
MR SIONA-CTRA DUA T cnence tiie Raa niicie alae ole salieal y ths mas 178 
ER ETON TLINDRANCEH TOs. hC% Wades ee iedd aoa Veabeia ae d 178 
CONVERSION—JOHN WANAMAKER’S..........0 00000 eeeee 178 
AMEN WE ANTHEET iris Mind's. ee wna abe Cvdiale eee 179 
COON VERE OMe UNEXPECTED ch Ci cileen GL ie fe ae gwleag 179 
COMA REI PAUN ELBE Sinha Miiilicte te slabs cece hic W Malad reg 180 
CONV EREIONOM AN ENEFOR LO. pte te wu Wie ou col elh sia co de 180 
ESCM Ve Me CER IMA NOS lty nin Wy Saker Chad aoe ccs, Aste ais 180 
CONVERTED—COMPANIONS OF THE... 2... e ee eee eee 180 
EMSC TET) TN VER GSPN aU Wee cio ks etek beck. > testis ea Wh 181 
TPO TIONSEJOUTRINED On ite ave t es Sola: fig gain, oiee ki slbnaleelg’t 181 
Tempeey-—(CONVIR TINGS, ANE toni cade elie bone shaleya 0 oo! sietqaeiale 181 
SAMA PHOT CHARACTER 150 yialtie Cech ike ko ete okeie Ao cmb eee 182 
Rees OR IOS ORI 115 ie Sabir Cutie wx al ood leak Wasnt Ueto 182 


brea ated rol SYA TALY NGS tt teh hited ah oo a om thal ple ohh + RO 182 


XVlli SUBJECT INDEX 
DEATH PAGE 


BEAUTY—TEMPORAL AND ETERNAL...........02000ee00: 183 
CHRISTUS CONSOLATOR....... RU Ce Me aia Srey late teks yi a 183 
JOBATH A RELEASED DUAN S Heinen Cle ce stb aos ttn Sauls 183 
DORATH (A DLEBB cei A sc iihoisin iiss abetis date he th io ee a 184 
TOBA TH DEA U TIRE ii  atedie ol alle see tere te teldia's: <ty eh eee 184 
DEATH'S! COR ADEE Cai) Rh a eth ged 184 
DEATH--DARKV ROOM GORGES aiaWii: hittin a ds tik bela) Gea 184 
DBATH ADESPRO VER (OR Mii Jerome yi NAN 08d 185 
DEATH ARGO Mit pia ar wane viii na pi Loo. erie k atc a) aa 186 
DEATH “HONORABLE sh UL Mee hunls ton Wak od Wels ay ot eee 186 
DEATHS INFIDELS a ilaual ea cw ae ty aleck iiucue erdee ae 186 
DRATHMAIVEIGHRAG DE ( ) TAM sete i Se airh n ei a ee 186 
DRATH + REMEMBRANCEOIN (1.1500 oot aly ois kt areca aed em 186 
DEATHMOENTENCE [REVERSED Wi baa Ons eee eee 187 
DEATH OICNIFICANCE 4) c cali: «cck's Gills tne iin eee ne 187 
JOB ACTS CO RTURMPHANT SVU OL ye oct oe a 188 
DEATH TRIUMPH LIN 2)... yous see old ete ee sb le ee 188 
(SODiSs RECORD BOOK 3.5 fe ek ee i se 188 
Deis MINUS AAPTER=GLOWW 0), 2s) cis ejeals Ls olay es 188 
PREPARED FOR DEATH). itis rl G etd sista hia aa ene 188 
SAVED PROM DBATH {\)) vice be ent e hn lee ee ee ee 189 
THERE (IS NO (DEATH... ple eens coe ee 189 
DECISION 
BEHOLD UNOW ie aos eo eet ei eit bens 189 
CHRIST--COMING,.TO . Ue a isi i ee 189 
CRISIS TLOUR Wc PRY nee FIN) OY a ee 190 
ACRISIS? LIMES 66) 001003") ote ef SU ie aan) a pc 190 
DJECISION——HARLY) oo 0 OLN ee 190 
DECISION——FIRM i150 in ite ee a 190 
DECISION-—INSTANT ¥).o0) 507,000 Sa Ges ae) ee IgI 
DECISION-—-INTELLIGENT | 000015) 25 0) ai i 191 
DECISION—-MOMENT OF 0/0.) "is ere sre ee ee IgI 
IDECISION—— POSSIBLE. Aion stash aia ec Ono I9I 
DEGIsION—-Y OUTHFUL, «27.44. pa alee pe ee 192 
IOBUAY LANGEROUS) 20/0, /h0 turtle aN RR le 192 
DRCAY PAL i Mico ga yee ehe aps wie re taayt aks oesid ni 192 
PUTORB--ClAMBLINGION .\(,o¢caltsttecy ce poeetk Unie ene ke eae 193 
TORT A OALUMOSD iy ari 8 ame Chae ests ean yar 193 
LOSt-7ALMOST BUTI) eye aN Lis ee 193 
PUT OR OWN cis eis Shlain ae enki claret ener 194 
PROCRABTINATION-——FATADT 0. 6 Wid oh Pe 194 
REJECTING THE! GREAT; PHYSICIAN, /.',: 254... ee Dae es 194 
DELE-CONTROIN Saws eg ct eee aap i hal ghee ne 195 
SPEECH—FRANK....... wi bhp hata BOR iebal cee ee anon a 195 


SUBJECT INDEX XIX 


PAGE 
eID R RAO rr Nah gt thay cadet Wack oh ote ahi eniate SOAR ak 196 
WARMING] “UNHERDED . 00.84.45 ne ccc oud eeu ee ee bee 196 
Perea Maltett IS OAS oe Ah de en ee 197 
ROTI BAIL 8 ae ay 5.5 ye vce ov cuca 4) i Ee Dad Maen 197 

EXAMPLES 
PAV UN RUUBNGIOOS lier d COk0 5 ook ee i htatosain Ab, ee eee ee ee 197 
AMAL ore COWS MOR S00 9S ic rl ala S ahs cas L-olega ey ot eume 198 
Rie MOLE REPRODUCING f14 01g LOLs ook ee, ee 198 
TEA MEL Cro AY ING 84 otic Aso Ra lysl a NP Rx a Seid ei ae eh © aud aden eal ee 198 
RISO A Poet IVERCOMEN nts cre ruinaea aie fea a a cea 198 
Wit S dtc s Wad Bye 4 ER 2 Rest aPC 199 
ROR EOR el VUARUED sulle. canard wi vive al cade plat cig foal Bale 199 
Bete PTR EAT NIE ON Cr ute OMG | Saas aan ae petal ya wk cae 199 
BY Gs LOING—- > TRADEAST 1%), 1). Uta a NOM sen 199 
TE ME LINE CUES Srl Ge fame man Pues CAL LY oh chek 200 
FAITH 

BRAN Gr VW tA TT IS ee Rett con Ay NLU cde tht uy a8 200 
(OES TET roti BG Ea Ite DA SNE A ake eC MCE Ag a a 200 
PAE CEMDR NE aay ee Olea eels cen an Pa MM HN, Jails phabogl ys 201 
PSMA TAN D SE REE DOM ae are wie Sle RR e ae Ma oot raat hae 201 
REET EVAND LEI ODE rue lth iii dale tataa eae ee per urn acts tiny 202 
ROAITHUAND WBE DIENGE occu abv teen Sean Gee Sle bc bald aby 202 
BEAT PHMANEN VV QRS cl itt rapa yn oe eaintar Ruin Oy stand ws 202 
POR ee AIL DOLCE WoL nT i ak Me he seubale bala, os a elore 203 
PLM Bild ES Baar ea a kA EAL REA EL oe Bae ee 203 
REPEAT A TINGE Ue Le ICS Seedy Re COUN adi bad dtcde pian ald bike Ble 203 
SPREE CATNUTIONLON ce ih eileen Mes on, Aare ae aa hee Me 203 
SOLVES lgpmedl FS SURI 42-0 UU BR RL a a 203 
Beets -NOUNDATIONIOR fies oc ve het eee Oe Seabicdalps ve 204 
PeMeeROUUTChON Tide FOND ce Meo Pre ny catiyelete cc dat pi eelere 204 
PEEEMENEC SOT) aia hs ae Rte ee ee Ui LR MTG es 204 
RITEMPRIR INCA Ties has p a oe em a Aa Lo US ty a8 205 
Pelee CE LIPICATIONT BY) cue ors uli eae aeite elela wide eee 205 
PO AD Citra tN ON ILEA Ret IN a, (a) acy a psitin ehh Mie ele bike Locate ee Sgtalece 206 
FairH—NOTHING IMPOSSIBLE WITH. ...........020200005 206 
ATV Oot REe MOTION cere ai Ustt icc a BY cats fas 206 
DRT Horn Ryan CaN dae a 207 
TER ATES aU Femmes oe el Se USS yl baiecg ite 207 
PES EERE LTO UNES ON ee ey aha asa ce al She ocak sorted ata 207 
PUR ET Hr LRT IREPEP CIT at tortie Men hah teins Goi ay nal igielnca cen ea 207 
TRAITT UN WAVERING oC ee Wield nie y bid nlasdie ned Baha 208 
Tem rret~- CL MWA RIB DL Canyaetilt Mitn yoo cba ye Ye are ae wae ann 208 
BOAT SUV EATS (rates RSC CAAT ah ove nk pada ig eh} +4 UNO 209 


xx SUBJECT INDEX 


PAGE 
Barra Without: HBBGING Woe Rote Peis On eee a nee 209 
FaItH—WORKING BY....... HULL Sc Sete AM, SU PRY AL EN 03 ohn 210 
JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION. .........-200ee+e0> 210 
PATIENCE>~PERFECT (WORKAOR Yili G cl ots ss en 210 
THROVGBR! PATTAG Eon a eet ee Tene Co). it. tran ane 211 
CRUST =-NECESSIDY: OFF (omit muni ta prt ds ells kisi 6, ale 211 
TRUTH --PEREEGT. Wi Atlee eee cakes be oa oe 211 
UNBELIBE-+REASON OF 0 0 Ui de oa ke 212 
UNENOWN—-PERILS ORITHE 3) Ma ee a4 be lacie oe kee 212 
“TPRIGTHOA WAKING ‘TO: 87 UE an phate saeco ae an 212 
FATHER 
FATHERS DISCOVERING «! 2) ii’ ick tol. Sagactian were tiene 8I 
HATHER GMUNERGY. 000/05) 4 7 23, ARSE Oh, a cc ae ee 82 
PATHE OVO Sy sha. oe ate Aci 2 en ee eee 82 
HATHER'S OVE i. 5 ae olny cep ae aie a oe 82 
(GUIDE MATHER AS. Uc.) RVers oe a 82 
FORGIVENESS 
WHRIST'S (MEDIATORSHIP 2704460 ie beans tea ee ale nee ee 83 
HORGIVEN ‘DEBTS: 51s Gila era et ee neha > oe oes 83 
FORGIVENESS AND ‘PROGRESS cs ads.) eet eee 83 
FORGIVENESS FRom: GOD} hon iis a. «eles cle ee 83 
FORGIVENESS OF SNEMIES 1.4/0 2000. 02.0 Oe 83 
(Gop's, FORGIVENESS ABSOLUTE) 3/).)4). 0/2 22 sen eee 84. 
NEW RELATIONSHIP, 01/5 Virdee llele eine en ek er 84 
PRAISE7-OACRIFICE OF, oh iste tab wees aleole a ee 84. 
OUAEITY:, OF MERCY...a)) 05s aw ah ail 85 
DAVED) OR UNSAVED cs Fo Dee as Cen 85 
SINNER—LIFTING THE . J)2))2))5 Se. oa ee ee 85 
ERANSGRESSION ‘HORGIVEN -h0 51) 4-4 2s eet 86 
GOD 
ACCOUNTABILITY TO GOD....... oa id 6 ate wl adiat nie tig itera 86 
APPEARING ‘BEFORE: GOD. 2/24/54 bee oe ee aie 86 
CSOD SA NISHED 24 5,980 46/5 cas Ginter VEL ata a eae, ate ae ee 87 
COR HARGUMBNT: BOR. Kuli minus lb a Woman tn en 2 ee 87 
GOD—-HIGHTING AGAINST. 2. 0)5 52), se vats acs a 0 88 
COIN DING 2's p5e'sin ie 8 Be agian ofla Shed hie alah) ae 88 
CHO TEE AR Sib aia'g abe Sbcale aly mics seen $a sonia Ae lola 89 
GOD UNSDRUGTING W073 jo Gls ac iviae ob blero a alnieelt ls 89 
BEGINNING-(ZOD JIN /THE J), <2 21. 33. bw Fo, Fey 89 
GOD IN THE/ DEGINNING 2400 buc spe nial» 4 cis) ele elas nn 89 
GOD NBD OB a ite ig 5s alley Gin ls kaa ik Mia go 
(FOD——TROMBLING iste do shud sed bate aaa ee go 
Gon, UNDERSTANDS W)1550' wie ioe hla ke Ho a ee go 


GOD—sW.LTEOTIT fio 4p kis 40 nonin ee a in hn ne go 


SUBJECT INDEX xxi 
PAGE 
SOO SACOMMAND Sasa tlie: Ody so dade ds Weapon ees. +O 
RENE BH OCOMIMAIN 2s idl a ies 5) sleeve Re gI 
BrOD & WONCKADMENTS 5 a)e 54 cid w de sle ie ee ane gI 
Re CoE MUA IND RR VALUED 00.08 5i0 tube die SL a gI 
Gop’s GoopNEss WAITS FOR MEN..................... 92 
[30D SUS INGDOM COMING. 2080 eed cil se Alea al eee 92 
Ca rye ie OIE Pa ecb Ue A VT EEN cg 92 
RYO NMI E PENS Bre tae oc 44 ca ke AVy acgod steno eRe 92 
PaO ee POMISes RINE chs ys hy CIT o alesse ce WAMaCe tO 93 
BOM AEN Crem USEION Sy kes iaty yg 4 ote Bialalduld now ala ty alee 93 
URIINGIEOAOE Sh gy tye) yas ar ai bids Ste eA bids hc e dees sn ey ee 93 
Reser ES Eke aN) o att Wid 6's 'adoteyal Gr oy Ad peat alley we Rote: bad AER 93 
MMT ME heh Weise ee sh Weave. 1) cieaiaao NR UDG gla Ao Sea 94. 
MERCY-—LONG-DUFFERING (160 Fd Spy cies sh eo ea 94. 
BA ANY ST at CIGD): Noss cals Lie bly, ee are GIS Hust siete hela crore 94. 
BaP ARINC COVEY POM Gigieh es aud of bitie ona A LURNeLD he eels (gh cM eee 94 
PEOMISE ek AIMING COD SW ce pliecela'e cbeha Rant desis s ls aie ete oat 94 
SACRIFICE FOR GOD.......... VT Lt vein tare CaM or eh Ls Ce 95 
ROU WELLEING? (AOU acts oh at ev ede rn REREAD laud ae are oh 9,2 95 
GRACE 
CHAD IOOR OR CHOD Sy avin ead 3 eV gtetttere ciotepe y itie cetera 95 
PPAR ASE OC) WING ING tect nt helvcoly sola leat Pare ache ws a's Sard 96 
eRe RCT URC IE TEN Py ct endl oe mattress ry Peculbteat Aes Ay We 96 
Pea oeiil ERA CTAD OI) .\, inl y Ghat aarp ea cen eta tra ep vinta bk 96 
AGH ADA VER ES Vici ti aise twin ed Wace stla ic abettetels 2 snide of 96 
Ae OR LING teeth Susie nists aca teigea te et ie we syece Aa Pe 96 
ERAN SUPE ICLION Siu, ssh ergt el Arvid an ful tans Ae eweteiae nl shove atta 97 
EPR SUL EICIEIN DCL AY Sheree. facie Peril Cee nit Ua 97 
PURER ING SRACH en isles .cn af areealh ot atheen aint viele. pois 97 
GRATITUDE 
STATA COU I rE ne eC A eid SORA Tile tal oat ots: « 97 
cereeerntpEyitd AA RT Sac a ee UG lal we te a tier a4 97 
(Fite tir DE —UNEXPRERGSED 1.1) piobisse vials cece disol es bisis wie eins 98 
Tee eae EN GD DOCS ut Wee yale epee dein eo she 98 
NV OCI oer LEAPING foc cs oisdera() § de ina S lwvaliaa ele sha sible! o; eo ese leh 99 
HEART 
PEA ee PSU LW ENE eek ih aloha teat lay vk coliena vose'te sefenela ede 104 
PATER ECT ESO RR MUTA VERT 0. Gu ic alan, n sa wick as beck spin e ala 4 Stk 104 
BUTEA RTS SIME OO a soe a hig aha Apia hea Nesyh Ly 'oete’ ph asus) ae aE 105 
SASCA RS Tro T A BIISEN ERIN: ACh scos Ach at sliada sl ocd aye) ob leein: 2: spel nto nl 105 
OER TET oIN FOSEL) UVM a MIS WEE UN atisy os chy, ercbalisl ss. bie sim 00 eta al aty weneadnle 105 
PRAT IN Wy ng is) AES ia alia pian Sale cova, Soe eta ie Ook eeabeate 105 
PAAR ONE TEE oo 3 daca esac d Mico tnt hd cadens avenebalnronyt Madea is 106 


XXli SUBJECT INDEX 


PAGE 
HEART—REFUSING THE...... Bena RS Teiion Baal cant enan Cae .. 106 
HEART SEEING YS Ce eo Br Oe aa 106 
HEAVEN IN THE HEART.......... Bias eles ete 107 
HEAVEN 
BROTHER—COMING OF A........... CUO Bes Ge 99 
GRAVES (ANDSSIMINNELS stale) Atk cera at ete bk ap elena oes ee 100 
HEAVEN-—-ARRIVINGUN 6 pe Ue ike oe ao ne 100 
HEAVEN-——AJOECULARY GKii i aie a nk ole IOI 
HBAVEN--AWAKING (IN 5 2 Oe Ree eva rg hs ae 101 
HEAVEN CHALLENGED | 2 Ee Re pela ec ce ee IOI 
HEAVEN--CLEARER | VIEW*ORB ly Ned cite ce ee 101 
HBAVEN--FOREGLEAMS OP su. Wut kis 102 
HEAVEN—GATES OF ALWAYS OPEN.................005: 102 
HEA VEN=-FIBAT OF 6 000.) Ci pip BI) aes pr 102 
HEAVEN-~MOVED ‘TO. fo ane pe SOE Ot AMOR See Bs 102 
HRAVEN-ANOTES OF .000 5 SE ee ee 102 
HRAVEN—PROSPECT OF CaS ee a eee 103 
HIEAVEN+— CREASURES (IN. 3)) Wasi mete eo tai a ee eee 103 
DBAVEN--WATCHING (IN. 3/102 Wat, ive tie oil een en 103 
Hope’ of HEAVEN IN: OLD AGE 2a Cyanide sic ete eee 104 
LirE—BREVITY OF........ Se LAURIE ION SUN yc hoe nk ea 104 
HELL 
HeLL—Bui.pine His Own......... RAP URAMOENTEL RAIS Po mua tg Lar, 
HELL--EXPLAINING | 4 ohccgue diva i ol Wakete WAY eee to tee 107 
SPIRITUAL DEATH (0) iiss d tiiwa peekier es Ake ee 107 
HOLY SPIRIT 
BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT—FINNEY’S.........00ccceceeees 108 
BIBLE— HOLY SPIRIT, IN| THE. OU 108 
CLBANSING=-CONSTANT, (00/00) 750 on, ae on 109 
ELOLY (GHOST POWER. OB) si\iislons peg necain date es eee a 109 
HOLY SPIRIT CHARGED. BY). Muha sepia Wie ae ee 109 
TLOLY) OPIRITSIN BED (OB. 40 0 tkgie tase any Eee eee ea 109 
HOLY OPIRIT 5 POWER ioe oe Lene eee a IIo 
WIPRASTVING (BREATH 00 705 O02 oe Uae Mee eRe 0) oe a 110 
LIre-—POWER OF ‘THE INNER. 000. 0) C22 EO eee 110 
MIRACLES—--—DATEY ahi. ae Geb) Coe ob oe III 
SHOURITY—--DIALDY oie 'l gn Puke A ee III 
SPIRIT GA NOLE) OB oo asia le b's woe ck ais tae alee lool ae 112 
SPIRIT--ERUITIOR a hin ok cis oh! eho eae a 112 
SPIRIT--OUEBNCHING "THE 905). sacl oie ctiica aa 112 
SPIRIT —— WiARNENGIOR hs at at oe 113 
PIRI Tra WW PENEBS TOE VETLE 3 0) 010s, die pipe hi be a snre Pe ean 113 


SUBJECT INDEX Xx 


HOME PAGE 
SAUTE LGN AL CHIE Hoo 6 citi) 6 2h dary a dw e Lp Lk es 114 
RRMA ET SCE, est iva lg! oh wha! Sede an or oe Share N Wh! dy ee A re 114 
POMEL BSR LHROUGH ETERNITY 4:4 .)....5°....06 Sela Rad 114 
PRAM Bre tOWA REC Ala snr Sha! edt pet a et atethin! 6 At 5.0 beg eee NY Ii4 
PROM RS er T LOMB ayy ello aay neal 4) 64k Ookg eae 11S 
TIGMBA WITHOUT CHRIST (AN Slit irc OC was eRe ne 11s 
PROM UE BMPORARY Slice h piss) dle s o's cde ate ae 116 
PIGMEWARID DUUDIS che Vigan Sail oe ee ae a 116 
BLO MIS ANY OME HIDCIN club. ty yiiatorey teh yia od oak be ee 116 
PAA WEIONDMISULLDING Pik - caries yen s Aele kanes ee ea 116 
PRINT EDU TSE rinse cee MAUR esd Finee tae tral erenn eee ee 116 
DHE MII D-hASHIONED PARENTS {hii ge tee tii. vate te 8 gota 117 

HYPOCRISY 
PAGE SLIDING lat RRICULLY OF os or sale ty eiltie | Give atolaea 226 
RRC LUSH BOTA IMEUN wager etl ent N ah had Ars taapta lei yet, 227, 
SOON THRUUIT AON BISTIAN SE 05) 00) Ceol aM aga be Sielid a Wet 227 
BeBe ts LEICA SON tai cite cme n yrds Via Nay SMS Ry arama oneaA | 227 
BADE ed) INDIR IVETON ory te Veo AL iy le kegcee vor acc Pe bay 227 
YS Aa ae Arie ane ait SUM Te Atta Mn eS OTN IE 228 
HiypocRites—-CANNOT PREVENT... 3 0. oye eee ee ee 228 
PUT POURITES--IBCEPTION OBS cue Atha ee a a ey 'sere NNN 228 
PIB -UNTRUTHBUL cele cog otk fie ee ME a gh ln es kate 228 
PALIGION =A COUNTER BEIT bi250 SUL cicok th, dedetia We a ielaza al ania e1 6. aes 229 
PETTUS LACK MI Cn ty ct in dean mink Ti ntale eee LEAR ere Lt 229 
RRR Dt MAN ties eT RU ONS walt Udo wh bk Sahay ate bal 229 

INGRATITUDE 
CUSED ig) 990 2295) BEA oo RY Ao ey IE A 229 
REPAY TDP RATIOS T oa Gitte iaicly foe aimed kiacges eas iia rd 230 
POM TITUDE OF THE AWORLD AiG ities Yh waite ed edie as 230 

INVITATION 
Rei TON ie GONAT Lb i Am 2 c0be ais Pines be alee bv 6 hm 230 
Reem RO Nnry VAULASOMEE Y)5..51,) hic asin ed Gta gras: e argiena, algal she airs 2a 
RCT MORE MIUSEIDE Mia Wrens ae AC ee MR a WA TES AN 23 231 
DirIt INEM STO M MONON FL Teg? Cee ORAM SM Reda Ut, gna ghee 231 

JUDGMENT 
MSS RTCA E tart on MNT Ake a dche Series A ad ova: wthatat 232 
TOA re ES OP adi eke LUE aT NAG bettie hee en fide ae ath 232 
Te gto ued BEES EVD EA ACU NT HEL Na oO nna Ne my ar NE" 232 
BU PUIRET OBE RIM ET EION Sor ile Cheuk MS aa ob wile a kad ae 232 
PIVARTISREAKING GSEICHY Ao i chy dine Ph 4 gle edie ee pha 233 
ETD Br EASTIBENG. AN 7 ie fais cchy <2) F4e aig 6! Saye al sla cel aie 233 
TOGING-toUANGEBAIN than lad cia kok by Reade aah 233 


IMEMTEITT AMID) WATERY Sess PCM NTs Aci y (hau, Wp baa lea 234 


XXIV SUBJECT INDEX 


PAGE 
JUDGMENT BY | GENERAL JAIM lac Gedten | suck Wid oe Gees ea 234 
TUDGMENT COMING WU tweed ues aig us tet Coed ee 234 
TUDGMENT (DAV. Gi Ah aceite Bee Lived Aan hed oie oli ieee 235 
JUDGMENT—GOD’S2)/04,.". |. SEG dG: Ge aid /o: +e 235 
J UDGMENT—-INPALLIB ERG UE fe ti any Son. ais, bea el 235 
JUDGMENT SEATON Plana Mabioh GMa, cw 4016) 235 
MUSTICE AND  PRIENDSHTBRM NIM coe ntl oe). ani 236 
USTIER—— WINGSHOE i iam oy IE UL Lites waa) gee 236 
PHYSICAL REGRIBUTION wor vare Wailea asic = Ce Ave 236 
REFUGES HINSUPRIGIEND swt ai ie) tasisat elke Ave 6h ie ee 236 
RESPONSIBILITY PH VADING 0h | ven ee hee orbit o Vian waren 237 
REWARD AE RT VEAS TERUG Miku pK paliche litt) wily sa) de < pitas nae 227, 
EBA U DCM ENT ah ested y Citak, Ciibe Jk CUR ed Wk om, eee 237 
WOW LN GID KARA PENG Agatti nae GUnte yia ages Wid a SAR ene 237 
UNBEEDEDMVVARNINGS A/S 0: VERN gs on ciate aa ae nee 237 

LOVE 
PBRETHREN LOVE VOB Ales 4s bapecie bee Abe ioliie SoUe Glee tte al aaaieed 238 
POV ADB TO Liaison dA) Uustra AU Reine TU Toca a nee tg ea! 238 
WOVE ARMS COR, Ui ALAMO Liem WhO ALL, Gane ae Ge Pea 238 
LOVE MAS TR NINGGE hac Witt ketreay Usler aes hig Gk oe eae 239 
DOVE CONQUEST: DRGH i) Gerla Gin erates shai cry aie Teac 239 
LOVE NERLTTGENT Tul el a Nits Rak net to anes 239 
WOVE NSA SURING? iit tates tae ht tn Dna i lala she eN Delayed 239 
LOVE ANEVER MAILE TH Gf ro iietye eM saee tty a eileen Ae ele 240 
LOVE AP ROTECTING Mniidu Bly wc iTih bau In ED a ea 240 
DOVES DACRIPICIA DM un ines (ck aalinn Miele) Uintah iaceety Re eee 241 
LOVE--OHOWING \CHRISTIS ve. uch Wer Acta ce neu ta nce 241 
LOVE 1 BLEGRAMI OR? 5.0 SOUR C arc Chea tre os et ee 241 
TOV LEST SOR Ape Bois | edie Gk ek Siar cine se ono OSE ea ae ea 242 
LOVES LD RANSBORMING (0 1.J1: eed nen Ne rena Tee 242 
LOVE “UNBOUNDED 20.4. G cuits antennae von ae Lae ee lg. 243 
ROY BV O1GB NOR tis. aki Wide Od adalat ee el eee a 243 
OVE AV ENIVING oth abil cas hid oe NER Rei eld Ae alae loos 243 
LOVE WINNING ‘POWER OR 050021 ah fy etsbe tis xa eee 244 
LOVESAWIONDERPUL AL) 4s. cob eos ieu ena ame aca weenie ea 244 
LOY SS MOURSTgici van dle's 2a Cielo Guat un antes ie ey eae ae 245 
LOVES IDRR VICE Oe Oe ae ia aaa, 245 
NER VIGEIOR OVE wi evs sf dv) ct) s4ncutea ya ¢ heey Gila a 245 
MINISTERS 

MINISTBR=-EELBING ULE sic: ic pie/ei tele wieia cai 1a ee 260 
MINISTER—-PRAYER FOR UNCONVERTED.............---. 260 
MINISTERS DLANDERING Aj. uil SG, Uamile) Oates Lae 260 
MINISTERS ASOD SAB ESE si: Adiantateaten deo bee meena eee 261 


SUBJECT INDEX XXV 


MONEY PAGE 
CHARACTER—OSTERLING..... WEE PAV EPI ae eae 245 
OPE Ces A! ed 5 A, tp a RD BS cod > Sd a 246 
[CHART RV oMOURISTIAN 95/006 6 cy bo ile diss oss le RE ee Oa 246 
COWARITY = LISPLAY OF}. Sous. dU. ao eee 246 
CHRISTIANS —“LLOARDINGy to, esti ine sc de doh eee ea aie 247 
CSOT RCTIONT TE AREA iii teeta ey coe wis sy ce mst Re aee 247 
WORVEREIOND AND RESTITUTION Oo 084. ution ee eee ene 
Reed er Deeoeh CURE E, Oe sec PERR MeN LIE oi) a ici nip oun 4 fo. Let BER 247 
Alay ree OPES LUINUS 2 0215 3.0) Le ever Path loyd, once ti as, woh og dodged ae 248 
See eR TEN SAIC TS PN Ia ie (Vous ial 4% 8 se “a del araen a AP 248 
Rees eI VA LMUAY IAS a eM Lola LM Aaah Gig yoy che ue 248 
Ctra VV LPHEOLDING. | vane Mase mereted tes Pood sient yi. kc uuned 249 
ed Py RUT ar GN ten ere ae oi vat (2h delet 249 
Paivere | MRR KINDS lurk SC aa ti CLR genie 249 
BPRMIMIST re Mee eC let a hip NEU ea chet Ree aie PNT ane fae Rte ae 249 
DD IRE Ge TCH IGT A fi.) bse gitees cetal MUINOURINA Mi ots as ati a bi cuele 249 
Dees ALONSTANT S404 15) Fe Us Mean aie eee Le ChLc e Dhelsl ahs ile 250 
Cavite HORCEDY 1). Ah une itch hese emure enn eC el Pee al 250 
UST Als [is al Bak RL ae a NB eet AEP Seat. Sali 2 SLE SN 250 
RarviNte Ux Ur SOLAN fh) hata: icles ice teers tae ere uly ie hte 250 
SOLVING INCE NGEL OR, 1 umm ver slay chs Mace hier ci Oty RUS 250 
Riel LN rere OMS ANA of. usd, at € DAME has i ages PY aE 251 
PSIV ING LUKEWARM . ci) t na oh MmuCCn cI Wn Fis SU abe eg 251 
PSTV ING PEN TLANDED. © Gullit tunvaie's teats ale hucitaln ie cedehe re a FAM | 
REIVINGT AEWA RD OR is. samen ae alae acne wate Pe eatakst aN Wt dod 251 
ELV ON late VAT eth ia) Lor ie eR meer, PU aoe eet adhe, 252 
CUM ANS er KA CRTIICIA Th, 06 vghev arcs clabetarcte eae NG aches erate ott 252 
PSIV INGE VOLUNTARY . 40, Gue nGte ae ue tie tie thie sl tetaty willie weate 252 
PE NEEDS DO Vie Pen cl ete acta Oe ek gs Ue eine Ula es 252 
Ree SUEY ET ED LAT EY RARER Ba EU TD iu Rack Sa 253 
BREE RICATS CAD afta stk oe echo RC ce ORE Ce iMate elkinle aay 253 
OEMS PEON et 00 1 2 Re ee OO SBR SF OE 253 
eee MANOR ABOVE Shi, wii nutld udu se Chute eaten vei g 254 
Ree CAT TOU ee sri ues Pane ieen Mil Lh its lek 254 
VIDE OR Tied oh EN IO Dae hy 254 
Reser SNe FLV ING | BOR Ss eee ei ik holy fale lela atu aey 255 
PA SR Cue EMMOTT Clr Me Lyi iek Ye dita Wi cla IE vit boss wig, ote 255 
FLOMMSTY (ENMELLISINESS “Cute uta. le WRUNG Cae 200 
RIONGRAL WTARNIDN RDS Re wh One i taiice aed oy okt Lk e's 4 SOR 255 
PNET ARCH emma i Siar mati) eg. hs ay 25 
MA COPERO Se AU ELIS ETS Ceca Lach, eer LI fa otal lab Miata a Th MRS 256 
NE Yo A ATE CHO eh re Cea te CS Re 256 
er iLy (SOLD ae EEE Ee OU PLAY Ud ald ee 256 
PORSRESIONG——OOVELOB cia tebe eden Aa: abe arse ebay erties 256 
MECPCRSION: ANTE RACTICN ais Sah Duress cits old aie ees 256 
PROSPERITY ete ANGER Oi chistes asa-aid wt suace aid ook Mika eee, 257 


XXVi SUBJECT INDEX 


PAGE 
RESTITUTION 2 CLC eS hie LL RL icky ye a 257 
RICHES IN: GLORY Aiea er an eat Ey peter at) | oe aie 257 
RicHES--FAILUREVORS Hy ose Gunn Coy Giles aoe leh 257 
RICHES--HOOL TANI VG Wintiiy dialy cele Wig S25. ils to het 257 
RICHES---U NDRSE RED Meant cat a 258 
RiCHES+-UNRRALIZRD Sere an ae oc te. st). a 258 
DATAN, S CHUAUBE TY ania inei a Wi au Rae ie C6 a 258 
DOUL-DESTROVING GREED Eli hui seu se. soe ok Se 258 
STEWARD A CHOOD waleuye be pus teens Get la chika uta sane 258 
TREASURE SALOSTIIN NOG UL co etl la) en 259 
‘TREASURY<7 LESUS)DEHOLDING: \ a0 dol A ee. tg a eee 259 
WORD A) CURE NRG eate oie hii va ey ly Ok Gd te a 259 
AV ORSHIPS ERO Min wR Lub ANU) COC eneny Le ae 260 

MOTHER 
AUNTOTARR S HORGIVEM ESS iets 6's’ Wills gave a lee ae Oho nen 262 
PACH Sa EOL Yi Mis hue ities wk aoe ke oes bak ete Ge ee 262 
HVE CDH Erk LONORING 0). yeas (oie wale & le ely pea le aetna 262 
INTO ED Rd COW EDTOR cod hss Wak ic ak RW asd NN ng 262 
NIOTHERS-REUNION WITH 2 fees caches a ae 263 
MOTHER IW AITING S.C UCU Lie awh ae Keehn 263 
MoTHER—JOHN QuINCY ADAMS’............0.0.0 0000-0200: 263 
MOTHER-——MICHAEL’ ANGELO'S. 000 0) 0e co 200 bee 263 
MoTHER— THOMAS EDISON'S. 0'5 5 e's ela Peed eek ek 263 
MOTHER-—LINCOEN'S nus ie oie doh a elnk Sole ee 263 
MorTHER-—-LORD /MAGAULAY'S.0'V 1) 2220 Se ee 263 
MOTHER-—-MOODY'S.1.. 0.0.20, cine wind bm Bihan nop ee 264 
MOTHER -~NAPOLBON'SS§ si. s bd vy) ae elo od oe ee 264 
MoTHER—-BENJAMIN "WEST 1Si.\0) se: lel iole dis yen 264 
MOTHER'S WOUTY Ge Ly a a kn 264 
MOTHER'S PAITHFULNESS 220200 UE viaity a ee 264 
Moriurr’s HANDSsa yee a i ee 264 
MOTHERISS LOVE. .5 4) Go rete ie & eee MD Geach Ree a 265 
MOTHER, S\PRAVERS 005) 0) cGy ee Do, a 26 
MOTHERS PRAYERS 000 es hy rar Us eo 266 
MOTHER SEV RIDE Uae i Doh a aon Wen OS 7 eh 266 
MOTRER/S OACRTRICH nails Ut sane Wath ae 267 
MOTHERS SSA CRIBTICE iC linMnnl fiat k 6s yh 267 
MOREBRISNOHAME OCU ll Oe ses Siar ee 268 
MOTHERIS) SUFFERING 2.75) ) 00) 2a biel slat heels deel oer 268 
MOTHER SISURPRISE ILS UAL Sih a ea 268 
MOTHER/SNHU ROUBLE ul 230 nap ye dak ee Hole cate hentes legen mena 268 
MOTHERISNVOICE DMO Uk Ue Rs ae eee 269 
MOTHER DY MOPLRIT avert ab sn bis: bce bbe Ok A a 269 
THE (MEMORY OF JA MOTHER 20°.) ho, thie ale ye to 
THE MOTHBR ROOD WLDBAL. | iis uiua whites bake tai tele Ae 270 


TWO FR UTGTOMB Ae aiatorg ory eta) ala Kate hone ne ere 270 


SUBJECT INDEX XXVii 


PARDON PAGE 
PORTO MIAME ee eral anita) o's Sah, retedlants Avidiee Pun alent 270 
BARDON-*ELUMILITY OBTAINS. 2. oe ls La eek 271 
REE Dire SILOS foe he sin, oa nds < ocolt cy ee RR ent chats 271 
WOMEN AA et Er De shake Miho! aly y igth ocs.s die Lestat SRI e eS tao s 271 
PRED RMGLGH Se GLOOD oy hoy seco. oleh yes Mee eRe a 
REDEMPTION—UNDERSTANDING. .. 0.0... ccc ee eee ee eee 272 

PERSONAL WORK 
BEGGARS—CHRISTIAN...... Reset vet Th Ae eee ne 117 
PATTI VAN CPU ie ole oie viele yeaa eile s ava cca wl aoe ere 117 
Wa eI ETS oH 8 8D Yoh CROMMER Uae ONE ED Te a EE TSR SR 2) 118 
CME SATIAITE VV OREMERSY WAR TEED aie herutey si ase lleiels ene bedtdce are) ated 118 
ere NID AL IED et, Upou cael ave MU Hoye PY Oth Wines'y cesarean 118 
DUT Sets VA DING gh ys clse coer saa rire 0 a a 118 
MITOT EVV AVICRINGE TINO Ce anes Ae est chet el oN Lh aa 118 
MERU UNAS CECUS Houiny WYMEE AES Gat bulee nde CRIM ae ist nes aie vom, aura 119 
DURES is rers RECON (tui aa hill Oto Miter on yeas, al oa ort 120 
RAE ee ELECT BD Aa Wc ie Bere enna dul Mihai: Mire tan erent Tea 120 
RARE OR arr ei ios Ny WE RAY BOP RT PULL GL aah ae Ot: He Neh Fl 120 
REIL AN DGS hee a pele AN Vee Weare OM She as oO 121 
LMP ORB LM NOTHING ( sk De Val eee G Wien ube tte piaa 121 
eee PLOW CEO. CHIN OR Mute VeAnc ik Su dua sure ck tin toe et 121 
PHA HIS LING wie sa VERON y hie seu ioe Atopic Wp Uk: Shey 121 
PC ORESGEL OCHETHER, Cy aea et talk We lin moive nT tin ity se eee ie 121 
Peete aris MIOMING LM sel UNI Lata fd pie tetera ed A tial a baits j eke: 
Re TER OM a ceri i tansisrntaeuss ato Une? fa.) 5 AN eae 122 
Paige Tee A REIN CEN Us pote yc ibace Pune apa iuiuhe (hese sat und Sid tiya as weil Frag 
SFE OM ICING | THIEN Peach POEs wedi cars wing ee en 123 
RUE MINEY eb REL ISns yim eaten toe intel doit alts ig love Stans 123 
OLEATE TENG Wait acs te Rte EEC Linke mate! Aen ame ag GA 123 
BOPEREIOVA LAN NV ONE Hues Fede cued Wi vate Bruty erg Ut AL lett ter uaa 123 
MERSONAL A VV OG B+ ERRIOUUD gin te year bea a Rule vie es 124 
PERSONAL, WORK—-HEAR ING Oia ke ee kee eee ede 124 
PeReONATAW ORE-—PERSISTENT. (cht cselr sick peice ed abae ee 124 
RICE AMD DONC AAU te nsociv tela Mle Weer ote MLL petty tytn 125 
Sper OOM y LN? GORD AUB OS Sh gl See a 125 
en reICOR TCA Ah CLA Mike yo eh oe Sy is 125 
I EEA UNDIAN CUS Sitio iitg, Okie tick. Buy cbos a hig kal ota a lesa 125 
SSW PET UR IOTES hy vac MTR eIe Jew Cask ew Give wie dasote 126 
SIPREY 1G PPO OW Fa Paste MbayaN a ee Ss Umea tho oe REL 126 
RST Chem OPrETCraLa DS Wn Wives eG DL ts daha eae g ea Sa 126 
MVC eri A RO mons Miwon Malek tM Cle 2 stag bal pie ere ae 126 
SELON AUT pad LOT EEL Ga 89 NEC Sb Gh i NED hk ea E27 
BER VICI AT RMA DNESS OPT a oul oie Sb OUU Rae 127 
PROC Hiren (OL bine SUP ae aon moe ky) Oka ACs INS ean 127 
SERVICE I NTPC EIGHIP RG oor ye ECS 5 he'd ooa Sis be whe Siege att ete bate 127 


XXVill SUBJECT INDEX 

PAGE 
HR VICE-—UNSELFISHA2). Urs Pau ined mecee Tes S1c. 5 Seams BPW OH 
SORVICE—-“UNSBEPISH 200) WN ae eye ney Mata , 128 
MORRO W+—DANCTIBIED | L VEN c ea Oh ietene ek bik a eee 128 
SOULS-+HAND-PICKED Weis Eee Gs oa ce sols ese ee 129 
S¥MPATHY—- WISH uci au ua OA eg cos) 129 
TIME REDEEM THEI 2 4/0 Cube chs leas teen a in Reinge's 6a eae! eee 129 
Warartidip, You Wo nye Fea ey ean Oe 2 0a\ ss be 130 
W-ANDERER--OREKING (THEY oih vils ieeisetele osu nee a» eae 130 
WINNING} DOULS isto serena Ns a Lith, to ci)» ols lars ee 130 
WORK-—PLENTY OFF aah eee L cee oe oo 2 aa 131 

PRAYER 

GUIDANGE==DIVINE i: id!.coo Seen nei eh bal ol 05 aaa 131 
INSPIRATION GIVEN hc} ii yen cies enc. 100 ean eee 131 
PRACTICE PE RAVER “20 Liha We vies Mn eran okie nek 2 ak eee 131 
PRAvo= lia Ge AUS ito tie yt Cea ee eae ted o> ata ae 131 
BRA WY old) d ss Arce Lars Re a a Reg ee 132 
IPRA ER AND. (EAV SS 0 ye SAR aR eon ee md hE tat nea ean 132 
PRAVERGAIND (PRACTICW wo sun pecs eee eats a, Dee 132 
TAR AG ER ANDRA TSE ME NK: Oe et mre ee atone mm Tur et te ae 133 
PRAYER AND AREVIVALS (00 002 eo oe ne eh er asad 2 ee 133 
PRAVERVAUK EY ora: POT UBL Aes MenrktP Sev kine ee Gee Mein er 134 
PRAVERCANSWERED Vili ci mns ake Wie feria ha Sr 134 
PRAYER DTATION: £0 /.50104,\05 toe Mao arene vena et tn 134 
PRAVER—-AI ‘CONSTANT (PRIVILEGE Muli. on oes Ane a 134 
IPRA VER-SCHILD'S 0) ater) 0 Sere er aN hata rst ne (eee 134 
PRAVER— CHTUD So Vale iit Oho Wann ie aes aa biel Cet ey 
PRAVER+- CHILD SOA VINGINw. Gly ye Aa nets Onlslg gue eee 135 
PRAYER—COMMUNION IN....... SUR ale ahd ee POA STR RR OES aa at ae 135 
PRAYER COUNTERMANDING U4) siiueiione Gaile ine, eee 136 
PRAYERS TOATTHUING G72 0s lta ta ene, ott een eee On ae aa 136 
PRAYER PEAR OR och 0" SCN a een ttt ar 136 
PRAYER—FORGIVING....... shen Py % ope bold Seagal oe AN als Se 136 
PRAVYER=AZOD SiPOWER IN y 15 tte pmeen ieee ait ear te 137 
PRAY RR -“LINCOLN'S 201.130 se. ee een nae ae) ee 137 
DRA VaR CIVLOTHER'S 21.75 \ 1) we 5) ye ae Met ANTS ok ahs oa te 137 
PRAVERIORAMNEIDE LY 7. shy ey iataia shy arate Ri ale anda a aeaeae 137 
PRAM RT REVENGE SIN, yc Gitta: hese iy ote rn LS «aoe ne 138 
PRAYER Re HO WER! OR, |... oh unm ai ee eh ball Ce ier . 138 
PRAY Re REV ATLING ©2105 Wale ole es rabince got ane Gititty ee ee 138 
PRAYER OR CURIDY EIN «ler \ bal ielanler sai See ee ale ee 139 
PRAYERO- UNANSWERED. \j2ia lb ahiely a td dine ol neuiaa re) ene 130 
PRAVER-UNGBASING)) 17 Sy. dsc > pp pedis wo (on lan ee 139 
PRAVER=-=WARMTHAOR Yoel c gat sndnca waa cnet op cet ah ae .- 140 
PRAVERS-y-HATHER Bc F foley et ebeomaaeecs tise Ate 140 
PRAVERS—INSINGERE 24/99 syians o'e okelewie twee beeaet ie ee . 140 
PRAYERS, REGISTBRED IN FIEAVEN |), in). 9 <ic/0'4is + sep eis hel 


—— 


SUBJECT INDEX XXX 
PAGE 
REE Is ec ks ye Ko dk ea Re hs ROL ak he 8 I4I 
NNR IETS ESMR LURID VENA 3 fo Fa/ap eS sie het cmd ci Je YMRS ilies 141 
DRRTESRERICVID PCR A VIRW Vols C0 chelsea kv uv te ko Ee oe eed OTT 141 
REGENERATION 
BIST SS PROP IEDY yr Ske es ce oe CE old ele coe Eelea 273 
PEMD MS ARIY UN Hiya] sc PVR fei Ao 3h aA Vis ww ccd 3:0 BADE 273 
IGEANGIPUGPT AEP PRRARANGE ) oe. 6d ca foe. vb pee 273 
PRL MURS LI Seid cg & ici ys old dNeyeieh dieisias cate cat ee aa 273 
Boreety ems Ch WARMLY a Md Oe 12 Ll sccd care: & Wosey at RO 274. 
BEE BUNGE USE ORT Ae ee hic. cue a eh ws wa ae 274. 
RPS em IAN GING you Onis fol tine: ogc ace.¥ dob. vse eet 274 
RA OREN. OF oo trove fro saith sc sie vous ts ele 274. 
PES LOREIE 4s foari de hie cers GA's: oss Sas eke s wee 275 
Re RUHerayECRSSITN, Ol he dete Fk oye o ace a tak aed 275: 
BUEOCINING CETIRY INE W. vLOLE Re} ci) cccrd i gods We hts kM ao alae a7 
MOE He ORORE TOR: Ga iuehe wedd wht Antu toe. ny wel: bene 275 
je 8 2 5) TACRINT Cs RIO ARRAS Rae Og) RHEL EE Sg te Eo ep 276 
RAGHNHRATION AND HDUCATIONG 64/3! cli ka fileeeew waite dace 276 
EMRE LO WILLY. dis titeten tas dale. ehaiiel aha lage ee ah ds Mae es 276 
PELAGIC UCATION itn MMe tok ema rer hwo gd: bay 276 
ROTO VE ISDUM whe Aen eae TL Atte Wn aeons ok RO A 277 
REPENTANCE 
UT RARER LISS (lie! a) ek (ae oe, lind eh hecw dhs eetny Saat Ld gg 277 
Minn PHIT CANCE | JEATH-D RD our. .fy Un oe Warregacde ho ud ue'e 3 ol 277 
Pepe CANO WRATH ADRES E WN. lsc cl eealehar iy Riis rienieid es 277 
BPO CANCE——ENDINIDUAD HY: hath ce datas Beaks YAM 278 
Boe PE TA NCH ADT MG TO sii iie ys sehiielh i tig came wait eie ye) d Si 278 
MOPEMTED SINS TO’ BES ORGOTTEN fib iwueiieg ss fceece ogee 278 
REE TAN CR — LARD Lip yl cuin de dsl eae cf ears inin is wlaincats 279 
MEN TANCE PEARS: OF iy! e ioe aF-ib big. Ho vip vs yedboinjeinsw eens 4 279 
RESURRECTION 
MEUM CTCL Soh LCD MG teas awa shy Weg tiad ok» Ws 4 280 
SEER DEIU LS OT Y trees go Chr ak aah Te AMS a ht Atay. Siva As as 280 
STE ANT CIE NCH 07 Y Ue ed Lk a dag ois oss aceie sa 280 
Pea eta oT Ee ns tee WE IE ay eva a 281 
FOaIAeUNe  ELTE RNIN: ano uee ih Aa aie) Gno) fiw gis apie abe! 8 a 281 
RBBURBECTION-—“ALOMPORTCOR iif lee ae BR ea de dks 282 
WO OUMUROTION: Pum MSSAR YE Cy Le. a bag wala 282 
Sha OPT yee tase\ is NLUp St EAE Na a PUP 282 
Pate OP bmn Car it mcme ies ne a... ids ea 282 
REVIVALS 
PCV IN POWER Wire ser JU) obs yells Cela 283 
REA NISU IGM TAAL wid is aise de WS aisn bomen an elecep lee rads 283 


Xxx SUBJECT INDEX 


PAGE 
EVANGELISM—-DRASTIONNOUK Ty Patek oak de ee 283 
GOSPEL~— POWER ORM. Suton Oe e CERN eels nial binky ean 284 
REVIVAL ALWAYS) POSSIBLEV ead aa vaeiee a ae eee a 284 
REVIVAL-—BEGINNING- OB mionie ny cit line wale ete). aie oa 285 
REVIVAL —N REDEDI re) Yenc UL mont ier... GMa 285 
REVIVAL WOU RCHVOR ROW Rua wt Wucn tek Ae hes, 3), vets er 285 
REVIVAL LEEANBEDED UNA dl nde buy wee bes aoe one 286 
REVIVALSS AEX CITEMENULMOBY big bk hh bitty is ole 8 5 fe ketal 286 
Wincss WEAR AND) WOBBLY Url tits oiiscitai 24. 6s 286 
REWARD 
CROWNGS CORRUPT LB DB ion lat ah iene Sioa a oth tia a. aia 286 
PA MEO RURIN A. CHUN MN INCU TRS OR ONE DN UN HEL aha tocol 287 
DOPH Ae RO WA) OB Vuh Nol die AORBe Re iularn hea ips ata a ik ne 287 
DELETSH NE Gors-h RIVA RD JOR J bi cho clea lle Rwy dena 287 
INV OrRcree ERNIE GL RSL) 2 2101.28 nce SOON hr a Rn ek Se a of 288 
SALVATION 
CELE ANSENG (7G WIR Wiad ack eet Rae Nita Stat y Mietent ge lath treael oe a 288 
CUR SPAS AVED 1 BV eAty G ani Wea iniek CLE uC n da 88) eed aaa 288 
POV ates: WVATER WiTEIN si) bold ditt Uyltide aii M iuieliplia ieie? at souk 4] fee oem 288 
WOSTAILMOST US UMMC Ni yeu tan ache ni ey anual Vea 289 
WhO nr yee DIN BIE eur NN ay een Moa ite pipe drs ec Per ee ei 289 
OpPORTIN TRY Cr OD) CALVES Mun sci iain rete nn ae yack! ana ee 289 
IPR AGE WANS TO Wabey aC MWR i aaah «Des eM ROU Nir et Near aes a 290 
PERISHING TR BSCUBAOR 20 PUnS EL Mee me sce ey Ue, ain (ri ane 290 
SALVATION HAY CALEGDCh AVE cit Hh ean 00) U0 A ae 291 
SALVATION ACs FEUD HA ae Oc me tA Aes niin heal eae 291 
SALVATION? (CONCERN FOR WO! 74 neve au Bi tithe ee le Beate 291 
SALVATION nO DiGi CW ERY EN S90 )4s aut erent ore), eat naan 291 
MAL VATION IVAISSING i belo cits aaa aG eal eles an bok a 291 
HALVATION: IW RRUSING | iain Gina niaicn fikenite i ais ds i\ee taint 292 
DAUVA TION --OURSTITUTES FOR ahamster ar. Sean 292 
SALVATION’ @ HROUGH DACRIPICE. Wilu Juiuohiu) ovata cou eae 293 
DALVATION GUTTER MOST NUL Ch caine (uee0 Sure 293 
DALVATION “VW BROLEGA TIE Tu it auas Gai es vhnale st Ave 293 
SA VAITON a7 WORKING CUT iytim 4 sek tec a Ua, ot 294 
SAWS TA TOON CEN LUNE: Oak CRM a ad N ot ss An ar 294 
DAVED BY DESTRUCTION ORS WORKS? 17 1/2122). «see sci ee 295 
HAVING UONOWLEDGBE OV) 2 Oeil vad, een 2 ).\c) ae ye 295 
DIMPRIGIRY ROR OA LVA TION 2) 650 3! 5 (yg is oo fea eae 295 
OPERCH tr AUDEN WV IOPRECTIVEN 0085.0). alesis cin sieie ae 295 
W IPN ESS er AN TEE Lone ica el cs vel eg) ache as | kok pute ee eet 295 
WITNESSINGHELANDBAL if to) st cst) > eis a'd niagara ae ee 296 
SATAN 
ANTI-CHRISTS-DICTURE OF. lec) 00 0) Una nema 296 
PROSTATEG Aree ream Stal st sty Gh a b's di aioel dea ein an Na 296 


SUBJECT INDEX 


MRM MEOR LIS AYIOTISUINATICS 2575), bios die o ehdvecbn Waa eee 
REE aera CTeONT Es LAR ee kik oie 4 soko Be 
BREE UA aS UTTA TITRE TO 5 is ol Ye ho a ble oh GOO OA 
PE LeA CMI OPUTHE 2 ci As eh kdl bale ok Dae ee 


SELF 


CONSULTING THE) ARCHITROT Ss. boys ne boise iy des te Ak a 
5p Og URS CORTE ig hai ee Aa et BLP PRET Teas fac nets Le Mi vec Am 


SIN 


TU SUPP CTR aa Gen ace tive ate th aby Ny 
Ss Tg patent = O50 TUL ASS PN co ahs OR Re 


XXXII SUBJECT INDEX 


PAGE 
SINMIN ‘CONTROG Uno relnnuo en irr a ed hea, tabi a 309 
Sin Not FoRSAKEN........ RPE APOE GOR Cn Ee 309 
SIN, OF COVETOUSNESS. Woman tia ivy ee i.e ahe cc i alot ee 309 
DIN. REVEALED (dite th ts etree sy ate otk 309 
Sin- AGE NoiCoRE FORT Ga Fae nee ie ius. ab a ene 309 
DIN-—DANISHING) . hee) arya Al hyae nso. oe 310 
DIN— BONDS LORY SUI Se vaio ieiared 5 sista ena 310 
DIN--BREAKINGUW ITH Gh fal yn Cau, Ut 4/2 eas tas 6 310 
DIN-7TBURDENIOR YAY ea menu fetid) 10) 5). Cae 310 
SIN OAL INO Rau fe tinene gue file ei atau ane MLE ae ene 311 
DINA CLASSTEVENG pabh ave annie petal aes Ls oily 2 «6 ee a 311 
DINGS AGONBESSING! OTHERS (20 V/uin Myson i fed a hie ne 311 
SEN CONE ESSION OREN rE Lie MONE Ay delay Geena te bean Epa 
DINe MOO MER ED oii Aiatiy Ou ON PEE Goi Bal eo 2s ee Oe ae 
GIN- -WOVERED So to bay, Sore Gn Onn ai gy ee 312 
EN SERTLEMIEN TOR. co. Gi ah siti a eaten Lae hace Or 313 
PN LO EMINITION ORG Vit uit chs asm ere etnp te ramiess eth, Sie ate ee 313 
PEM OE LU SIONS: OF Ueistity nite it ets tide omy ety aetna 2 ae 313 
veh ret W220 Sa) Rd Wi br a a ch eR RS NR PI 352 
SIN LJ HOPRUCTION (ORS cgay Suk oie ae) oie ee alana 314 
SINS LWESTRUCTIVE sti oash att Was Aci the enDnegts el hes, eee 314 
DINE NTANGLEMENTS/OPL but.) alt Merritt oi. at 4 ok cou 
DENTE REEDOM MEROM Wena e any Ab UiNaa kame otter ata sh 315 
SIN--GRIP* ORR Maar ee tatea a) Alte aay UN yo 315 
DIN——KILLING CAUSE JOR Nee A view siiiatn pins. nie te au ee 316 
SINT LURE OR ie iri ane ego COLE MUM Ti. 6. a Or 316 
SENS DUAYVING VY ITH MOU Ch CF WN Un uly pet 316 
DING POISON LOR UNG (HM a citi atin terol ey, Wal tegen aap, er NS) 317 
DINE RRIZE lOR Mires ie Miah Lent ara Cy het aa sae 0 ae Bay | 
DIN ORE VEALED a) Bid, t hot tten Oke he ets ieee Ne ng see 317 
BINT -REVEALED ai) 2 iin We a ills SAL gl ane 318 
DIN HR EVELATION/ OR bt. rh Ae aha chee Oko ee ce 318 
DOIN -DEGORET wlieM ett. cuties AR ee nb bes a 318 
SLI eC ORG yet Uitte iat oN Zale e, Aare Ot UL 319 
BINS SLAVERY CORY cr tattyciic ld alee a apes ee airs eer 319 
BOER eR TING LORS gre) Lay Ben OY AO ae oth 319 
SIN POMBO ORs Co oh Hct UN Reg te ae ee a 320 
SINT RAGED Y MOM GUA ci cum i UCU Were bys 7) 320 
DIN WAGRSIOR ME OTe an Sek oe ec 320 
PINT IVAGES ORY. il) Meola) Mas bit 320 
DUN ar WAGES! OBI ito teats etsy so aly 0 ua cue's 2 6c Sak rr 321 
DINFUL ARENT Som Aare i Lo lhe iG ee 321 
SINBUDIOILENCE vel re Pe ld i ed ae aa te 322 
SENN ER LA GK AINA ins /i!y 0 5 in bn on lobe kt ete a 322 
DINNER OR ayAgN ie cute 00.0. aa te. Oy ne a2" 


SUBJECT INDEX 


eS TS CSS SE CE VO Ve EO Pe OEP ele ees & Se » 
Kt A ee Be ee ee ee ee, ee ee a ee ee a Pg ST en Ff | 
SE 8 FF eS SO CLE Oe SE CMEC Ae 8 See Be es eee eee 


9S Eee ke Eee & SS OE De WO, Oh BAe ee Oe Oe ee) er eee en 


SINS—FORGOTTEN 
eRe eT LISINIEN a Aa Sty OF has oe vg te bin 8 eae dc pe ee Ont 
i LTTE rite tede ti ee UE et Ae 
ee CAT TEI Ae Mie cS oe Le er 


SOS CM) Be) & SP else ew C8) 6 6 P'S STE oh SVE Te ae a wee hele eee 


sk Re RAT PU ve ee Tt ey et a ee a ee er ee ee i ee A eT ee ee Os vk po 


we ae ee ee Se. Cee & LOO Om a 6, el ce a) ed. 6 he 36 © +068) © eS, et la eth Las 


SOUL—ITS VALUE 
LIFE’s JOURNEY—PREPARING FOR...........eeceeceees 


ba ANS OR CN ai) Uc URE Aa Ee eeto 2 bie .a a lla, J) See a eR 


ITS STIS Hats ee a ets ke he PR SC eae tk Oa 
A LIL OA UNG oes. Ritts L Gieige gate hak eek ie, 
PUL VV COE T HCE hs oe eh Te Le niaae Pare ee trae lat tah Pa 
OPPORTUMITIES-—LAZINESS“AND © 2 uo eR Oe el ee. 
SON Leh af Ros MORE ORAM fami BOR Tee BRE SNL oP ane RN ee 
SS Delt ea ganar nt a a Bea Bo Role © CR Senet 
PRI Us Errors NG TIC PETIOR tee fe a int hare Tae Wig CS MLM a the tetas tile 
Deemer AEA TING AY te sebd Mri a iy Sah) ae eI at 18g 


Ot Ge LGNORANCELOR «oli scat coh hs eat GN ET eh IS 
SouL—PuRCHASED 


Pee eS Ce Se Oe wees 16 6 ew PSPS LO Er Or 6 Ore" Si 8 @ 8. 1S 


TEMPTATION 


Pil 1 JRLIVERANOT ECROM yw ce wc evs «eld Cdiele eek 
Piet Cyt LID wet UAT gE ee oe Oe a 


XXXIV SUBJECT INDEX 





PAGE 
‘TEMPTATION*—HSCAPHD HO ROM wily ls aonb ss cul. cee cent 213 
(DEMPTATION—~Y TELDINGWTOs eins ou ee orale Beet ee 214 
LEMPTATIONS—-REMOVING cyte. UuitPolds woke uae co ae 214 
WATCHFULNESS—DUTY OF......... PV RR Bee} wf 

VISION 
ATTENTION—-CONGENTRATED go. aie stiaolas cc. vie 214 
(Ross LIGHT OREN Gi ues irene 215 
HDUCATIONSAMARKS OF SUM iin yee Se 215 
JESUSA+LOORINGUTO TREE eon ualh tcl) ile 209 oa 215 
(PRSUG OM Orono vat Cec ueim avn alr ihe A cali is y  e 215 
COU rs Naas aA PML Tir NS PLEA Bebo 216 
ROL ir to LEBEING Onis mie fun Weta OM A) ioe eee 216 
DiGHPINAUARICOW ORED Syl eid Ube nO CEM MES hen 217 
PAOGICTINGNCL acy ce Wome nd oY OCGA ty cn ni VY er 217 
PEEING MOA RICL isk vucd iis FL wei Jie ivernals RUnmiN Caos A Sa 217 
DLGH Der LIVIN Ray Seer lr wane sin usu ee Runs CIPI hee ae ae Be 
DIVE ROOMUNGHH Une tr Ui site's Recwile Ui Iie Ra un) WORE lea a eee 
WHSTON: TINDER BD ava em ein hie) Mi) oe Seen Rae 219 
MESTON/ OR THE KCIN GION: aati yale da iia ehsiorw: geil ete 219 
WITNESSES 

CANNIBAL TONGUESH iene wu Sey clas) ae 219 
CHURCH MEMBERS IDEAL fos by oe hep ree 219 
RUINGUS REBUGEHS a iy. agu huts taistouis ocelot aa 219 
OARS OR ALLONOR oud Misnny duly Palau a). uid Side en 220 
BILENGE CRIMINAL ued hie oa tu crnlle pte 220 
SIMPLICITY SWHINS besa) i kaingis tiiiae ce Cau lee eee 221 
SPEECH DLOM OR Mal chutney play Law ace (hs a 221 
(DESTIMONY “BEST Vsti haere uk nnn foie 2 eee 221 
LESTIMONY HP REOTIVE ue cu a, cid does ee ee 222 
DESTIMONY: FP BARLBSS cif) cide Aik 1 At ee ee 222 
MBB TIMONY LOST yl) MY A ena eae ae 223 
IDE STIMONW LAIN @ 1s Jyh aca abe Okc See ata gn 223 
PESTIMONY, REPEATED 04 vat sieht ee ne Bo ek Oe a 223 
Sie PUMON Ye VALUE OF m2 wiih ig ame aah Male ike Sey 223 
VIGOR AUSAVING fd cil yi cr etre ha uk Ne Cui o0 a 224 
WITT NESS AMCOOD AGU hla fede see ecr PM ea 225 
WIPES Sse ui MUL MLNS eet moe Lt TR Co cr 225 
WTI NESSRSSSNATHHRUE) O.Abe ld iw byw ov) ct ce 225 
WITNESSES TANDING (iia bin oe sales Stile A 225 
WITNESSES RUNLETTERED 4.7), 400005 (hd ee 226 


1001 ILLUSTRATIONS 
FOR 
PULPIT AND PLATFORM 





1001 ILLUSTRATIONS 
FOR 
PULPIT AND PLATFORM 


ATONEMENT 


Atonement—Accepted 


There is a legend that on that 
night of the Exodus a young Jewish 
maiden—the ffirst-born of the 
family—was so troubled on her sick- 
bed that she could not sleep. 
“Father,” she anxiously inquired, 
“are you sure that the blood is 
there?” He replied that he had 
ordered it to be sprinkled on the 
lintel. The restless girl will not be 
satisfied until her father has taken 
her up and carried her to the door 
to see for herself; and lo! the blood 
is not there! 
neglected, and before midnight the 
father makes haste to put on his 
door the sacred token of protection. 
The legend may be false; but it 
teaches a very weighty and solemn 
admonition to every sinful soul who 
may be near eternity and is not yet 
sheltered under the Atonement of 
Jesus Christ—Cuyler. 


I. 


Atonement a Cleansing Foun- 
tain 

The fact that there is no water 
in Argentina with which wool can 
be washed clean has tended to in- 
crease trade with the United States, 
which is sending to the Argentine 
huge quantities of yarns made from 
dirty wool shipped to the United 
States. There is some property in 
the water in the Argentine Republic 
which prevents the cleansing of 
wool, all of which must be shipped 


2. 


The order had been: 


37 


to England or North America. This 
entails the payment of an export 
tax on the wool and an import tax 
on the yarns. Chemists say there is 
only one river in Argentina whose 
waters could be used to wash wool 
clean enough for manufacture into 
cloth. This river is a small stream 
in the north, too far from transpor- 
tation facilities to be of use. When 
I read this interesting news dispatch 
from Buenos Aires I thought of Wil- 
liam Cowper’s famous hymn: 


“There is a fountain filled with 
blood, 

Drawn from Immanuel’s veins; 

And sinners plunged beneath that 
flood, 


Lose all their guilty stains.” 


And I thank God with rejoicing 
that I can make the third verse my 
own: 


“E’er since, by faith, I saw the 
stream 
Thy flowing wounds supply, 
Redeeming love has been my theme, 
And shall be, till I die.” 


3. Atonement—Despising 


A brilliant lawyer in New York 
City sometime ago spoke to a promi- 
nent minister of that city asking 
him if he really believed that Christ 
rose from the dead. The minister 
replied that he did, and asked the 
privilege of presenting the proof to 
the lawyer. The lawyer took the 
material offered in proof away and 


38 ATONEMENT 


studied it. He returned to the min- 
ister and said, “I am convinced that 
Jesus really did rise from the dead. 
But—”’ he then added, “I am no 
nearer being a Christian than I was 
before. I thought the difficulty was 
with my head. I find that it is 
really with my heart.” The sin that 
rejects Jesus when we are con- 
vinced that He is ali He claimed to 
be is the sin for which there is no 
forgiveness. No atonement has 
been made for the man who despises 
the atonement that has _ been 
wrought out at so great a cost. 


4. Atonement Necessary 


We are reminded by Rev. Dr. 
Charles R. Brown that the minister 
who ignores the atonement loses his 
message and his ministry ceases to 
be fruitful. 

When Lady Macbeth walked the 
floor at midnight, her eyes wide 
open but her senses shut, she suf- 
fered from a deep sense of guilt. 
She washes her hands as though 
frantic to remove a stain and in 
anguish cries, “Out damned spot! 


Out I say! Will these hands never 
more be clean! They smell of blood 
still.” 


And her husband sharing her guilt 
cries to his physician: 


“Canst thou not minister to a mind 
diseased ; 

Pluck from my memory a rooted 
sorrow ; 

Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that 
perilous stuff 

Which weights upon the heart?” 


To this the wise doctor replies: 
“Therein the patient must minister 
to himself.” More needs he the 
divine, than the physician. 

The great dramatist drew this pic- 
ture with a steady hand. Some 
plan, super-human, was needed to 
lift such a burden from a human 
soul. The soul of man, conscious of 
guilt, cries out for REDEMPTION. 


It cannot be satisfied with anything 
less. 


5. Atoning Love 


What is the atonement? That 
Christ gave God the right to be 
compassionate? That he came 
down to this world, and made a bar- 
gain, and agreed that he would 
suffer so much if God afterwards 
would exercise compassion and 
leniency towards men? Away with 
your shop logic! Away with your 
commercial theories! Go down 
among the moles and bats, and grope 
with such detestable notions of 
truth as that by agreement Christ 
came among men to suffer and give 
God a chance to be gracious! Over 
all these heresies of hell I lift up the 
glorious words, “God so loved the 
world that he gave his Son.” Love 
before Christ came was the bow 
which sent that silver arrow into the 
world.—H. W. Beecher. 


6. Blood—Purchased by 


In the reign of the Emperor Yang 
Lo a great bell tower was built in 
Peking. The Emperor ordered the 
mandarin Kuan Yu to cast a bell to 
be hung in the tower to remind the 


people daily of their loyalty to him. 


With great care the mandarin 
gathered the materials and made a 
casting, but it proved to be a failure. 
The second attempt ended likewise. 
Then the Emperor in wrath com- 
manded Yang Lo to make another 
trial under penalty of death if he 
failed. Ko-ai, the beautiful 
daughter of the mandarin, asked an 
astrologer by what means the suc- 
cess of the casting could be assured. 
“Only by mingling the blood of a 
maiden with the molten metal,” was 
his reply. Ko-ai was present at the 
casting. And when the fiery stream 
was turned into the mould she ran 
forward, and crying, “For my 
father,” leaped into the stream. The 
casting this time was successful. 


ATONEMENT 39 


The bell was perfect. She had pur- 
chased it with her blood. When the 
great Church Bell of the ages was 
cast, Jesus mingled his person in its 
composition and thus “purchased it 
with his blood.” 


7. Christ—Necessity of 


The Sailors’ Home, in Liverpool, 
was once on fire in the dead of the 
night, and a great cry of “Fire!” 
was raised. When the people as- 
sembled they saw in the upper stories 
some men crying for help. The fire 
escape did not nearly reach where 
the men were. A long ladder was 
brought and put against the burning 
building; but it was too short. A 
British sailor in the crowd, seeing 
the state of affairs, is said to have 
rushed up the ladder, balanced him- 
self on the uppermost round with 
his foot, and seized the window- sill 
with his hands, saying: “Quick, men, 
scramble over my body, on the 
ladder, and down you go.” One by 
one the men came down until all 
were saved, and then the sailor came 
down, his face burnt, his hair singed, 
and his fingers blistered; but he had 
saved the men. That ladder went a 
long way; but before the men could 
be saved it needed the length of a 
man. Your franchise, your land 
reform, your temperance reform, go 
a long way, but for the uplifting of 
men, to give men that peace of mind 
that passeth knowledge, they need 
the length of a man—the man Christ 
Jesus whom we _ preach.—Charles 
Leach. 


8. Christ Our Substitute 


After the victory of Areole the 
indefatigable Bonaparte passed 
through the camp during the night. 
He had found a sentinel who had 
fallen asleep; raising his gun gently 
and without waking the soldier he 
took the duty, till about the time the 
watch would be relieved. At last 
the soldier woke. Imagine his alarm 
when he saw his general performing 


his duty. He cried out, “Bonaparte! 
I am a lost man.” Bonaparte 
answered “Be at peace; the secret is 
mine; and it is excusable when a 
brave soldier like thyself, after so 
much fatigue, should fall asleep; 
only another time choose a more fit- 
ting moment.”—C. Lacretelle’s His- 
toire de la Revolution Francaise. 


9. Cross a Refuge 


Sir A. Conan Doyle, in his history 
of the Boer War, tells us how on 
one occasion a comparatively small 
detachment of the British atmy was 
surprised by a force of the enemy 
twice its own strength. The Brit- 
ish were driven back upon their 
camp, and the Boers occupied a com- 
manding position from which they 
were enabled to pour volley after 
volley into the English lines. The 
British wounded in the earlier part 
of the acticn found themselves in a 
terrible position, laid out in the open 
under a withering fire. One of this 
number, a corporal in the Ceylon 
Mounted Infantry, tells the story 
himself: “We must get up a red flag 
or we shall be blown from the face 
of the earth.” He says, “We had a 
pillow but no red paint. Then we 
saw what to do instead. So they 
made an upright with my blood and 
the horizontal with Paul’s.” This 
grim flag, the blood red cross upon 
the white background, was respected 
by the Boers. Those lying beneath it 
were safe. Even so—beneath the 
blood stained Cross of Christ we find 
our sure refuge. 


ro. Crucified with Christ 


On July ist, 1555, John Bradford 
was burned to death. He was chap- 
lain to King Edward Sixth of Eng- 
land, and was one of the most popu- 
lar preachers of his day. But he was 
a martyr to his faith, As he was 
being driven out to Newgate to be 
burned, permission was given him to 
speak, and from the wagon in which 
he rode to his death the entire way 


40 ATONEMENT 


out from West London to Newgate 
he shouted: “Christ, Christ, none but 
Christ!” John Bradford was feel- 


ing very much as Paul must have. 


felt. Only with Paul, it was not the 
outburst of a spasmodic elation, but 
the expression of a life habit. “I 
am crucified with Christ; neverthe- 
less I live; yet not I, but Christ 
liveth in me, and the life which I 
now live in the flesh I live by the 
faith of the Son of God, who loved 
me, and gave himself for me.”’— 
James I. Vance. 


iz. Redeemed by Christ 


Christ hath “redeemed” us from 
the curse. Redeemed! We know 
the meaning of the word, to ransom 
or buy back again. You are in 
straitened financial circumstances, let 
us say, and must have a certain sum 
of money at once. The pawnshop is 
your only hope. And yet you have 
nothing to hypothecate except some- 
thing which in a sense is not yours 
—a precious ring, an heirloom which 
must be handed down to another 
generation. But you have a friend 
who understands your circumstances 
and sympathizes in your distress. 
He enters the pawnshop at the 
moment and places upon the counter 
the sum which has been given you 
for the ring. He redeems, he buys 
it back again. 

Now there is not one of us who 
has not pawned his soul to Satan, 
or sin, as you may choose to have 
it. It was not ours to pawn, but 
pawned it we have for all that. 
But there is “a Friend who sticketh 
closer than a brother,” who knows 
all about our circumstances, and 
sympathizes with us in our distress. 
At the critical moment He has 
appeared and laid down the price 
of our redemption. It is not cor- 
ruptible things such as: silver and 
gold He has paid, but His own 
precious blood “as of a lamb without 
blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 
1: 18, 19).—James M. Gray. 


I2. Sacrifice Appreciated 


An armless soldier was walking 
along one of the streets in Dublin, 
when an old lady espied him. See- 
ing his armiess sleeve, and noting 
his head was bandaged, she went up 
to him, and wiih tears in her eyes, 
she said, “Thank you for being 
wounded for me.” ‘The soldier im- 
mediately saluted and _ replied, 
“Thank you, madam, for your 
appreciation.” 

The words of the appreciating 
lady remind us of our Lord, who 
was “wounded for our transgres- 
sion” (Isa. 53: 5). The word 
“wounded” means to bore, to tor- 
ment (margin), and to slay. He 
was bored to his soul, and torn in 
his spirit, as he was slain for our 
sins. The sufferings of his body 
were but the outward expression 
of the sufferings of his soul. The 
sufferings of his soul were the soul 
of his sufferings. No one can tell 
how much he suffered. His un- 
known sufferings are beyond human 
ken. 


He died for me, he tasted death, 
Its woe and all its hell; 

How much he suffered when he died 
No human voice can tell. 


As the soldier appreciated the ap- 
preciation of the one who thanked 
him, so our Lord appreciates our 
thanksgiving and praise. 


He died for me, for me he died, 
Oh, let me say it more; 

For me he died, he died for me, 
My soul doth him adore. 


r3. Salvation by Sacrifice 


In the early days of the French in 
Canada, those living at Quebec heard 
that the Iroquois were coming down 
the St. Lawrence, twelve hundred 
strong. If they reached the settle- 
ments they would burn the houses, 
and destroy the crops even if those 
who gained the Fort were secure. 
They must not reach Quebec. So 


BELIEVER’S SECURITY 41 


Daulac with sixteen followers volun- 
teered to go up the river and meet 
them, and turn them back. On the 
way they were joined by forty-four 
Hurons and coming to the foot of a 
rapid which the Iroquois must 
descend, they built a little fort of 
stakes and stones and awaited the 
foe. And he came twelve hundred 
strong and hurled attack after attack 
against the little citadel. But those 
behind were fighting off the enemy 
for country and for life. They beat 
off the enemy for days and days. 
But the water was exhausted and 
their parched throats refused to 
swallow the dry corn. But there 
was no thought of surrender and so 
the fight went on. But the task was 
too unequal even for men such as 
they and they were at last slain. 
But the Iroquois had learned to fear 
Frenchmen so that they never went 
on to Quebec. The seventeen brave 
Frenchmen had saved their country- 
men’s lives by laying down their 
own. 


14. Substitution 


Some years ago a war raged in 
India between the English and a 
native monarch, Tippoo Saib. On 
one occasion several English officers 
were taken prisoners, among them 
one named Baird. One day a native 
officer brought in fetters to be put 
on each of the prisoners, the 
wounded not excepted. Baird had 
been severely wounded, and was suf- 
fering from pain and weakness. A 
grey-haired officer said to the native 
official, “You do not think of put- 
ting chains upon that wounded 
young man?” “There are just as 
many pairs of fetters as there are 
captives,” was the answer, “and 
every pair must be worn.” “Then,” 
said the officer, “put two pairs on 
me; I will wear his as well as my 
own.” Baird lived to regain his 
freedom, lived to take that very city, 
but the generous friend died in 
prison.—Gray. 


BELIEVER’S SECURITY 


I5. Appearances—Deceptive 


It is written in one of the East- 
ern legends that somewhere in the 
deserts of Arabia there stood a mass 
of jagged rock, the surface of which 
was seamed and scarred by the ele- 
ments; but whenever any one came 
to the rock in the right way he saw 
a door shape itself in the sides of 
the barren stone, through which he 
could enter in and find a store of 
rich and precious treasures which he 
could carry away with him. There 
are some things in God’s universe 
that seem as barren and unattractive 
as bare and fissured rocks, but which 
contain an inwardness of warmth 
and sweetness inconceivable. The 
inner holies of God are fast con- 
cealed from those who will not come 
aright, with a heart of love and 
trust, but open to all who are willing 
to see and to hear.—Christian Age. 


16. Assurance—God’s 


I remember, many years ago, a 
little boy on a trundle bed, having 
just retired for the night. Before 
going to sleep, he turned in the direc- 
tion of the large bed on which his 
father lay, and said, “Father, are 
you there?” and the answer came 
back, “Yes, my son.” I remember 
that that boy turned over and went 
to sleep without a thought of harm. 
Tonight that little boy is an old man 
of seventy, and every night before 
going to sleep he looks up into the 
face of his Heavenly Father, and 
says, “Father, are you there?” and 
the answer comes back, “Yes, my 
son.” And then he asks in childish 
faith, “Will you take care of me to- 
night?” and the answer comes back, 
clear and strong, “Yes, my _ son.” 
Whom need we fear, if God our 
Father be with us?—Henry Clay 
Trumbull. 


17. Assurance—Ground of 
When Antigonus was ready to en- 


42 BELIEVER’S SECURITY 


gage in a sea-fight with Ptolemy's 
armada, the pilot cried out, “How 
many they are more than we!” “’Tis 
true,” said the courageous king, “if 
you count their numbers, they sur- 
pass us; but for how many do you 
value me?” And so the ground of 
our assurance rests not in ourselves, 
or anything that is ours—if it did it 
would be presumption—it rests in 
Christ and what He has done.—B. 


18. Assurance, Lost and Found 


The Bishop of Exeter in -the 
course of a conversation mentioned 
that, many years since, while walk- 
ing by a river he lost his watch and 
chain, which he supposed had been 
pulled from his pocket by the bough 
of a tree. Some time afterwards, 
when staying in the same neighbor- 
hood, he took a stroll by the side 
of the river and came to the secluded 
spot where he had lost his valuables, 
and there, to his surprise and delight, 
he found them. So with Christians 
who have lost their first love. They 
have only to retrace their steps like 
Bunyan’s pilgrim when he had slept 
in the bowers of ease. Assurance 
comes again, as it came at first by 
prayer, and penitence, by diligent and 
conscientious search for it Godward 
and Christward.—B. 


19. Bolted to the Rudder 


As our ship crossed the Indian 
Ocean I often wondered as to the 
use of a large steel fin which was 
lashed to the after-deck. When we 
reached Suez and headed into the 
canal, my curiosity was satisfied. 
Just before the channel narrowed the 
ship stopped, a boat was lowered and 
floated under the stern while the 
sailors on deck lowered the fin by 
means of block and tackle. In a 
few minutes it was in place and 
securely bolted to the rudder. As 
the ship proceeded its use became 
clear. 

The Suez Canal averages about a 
hundred yards in width. Because 


of the danger of undermining the 
banks by the wash of the propellers, 


the engines are slowed down to 


about five knots an hour. With the 
ordinary rudder a large ship cannot 
be managed at so slow a speed in 
such narrow quarters. However, 
with the rudder enlarged to several 
times its normal size, this becomes 
possible. 

Some Christians wonder why they 
are not more clearly guided. God is 
doing the best he can at the speed 
they are making. The slower they 
move the more difficul: the guidance. 
A rudder is useless when a ship 
stands still. 


20. Burden-Bearer 


God is near, is present, in helpful- 
ness, for those who try to serve and 
trust him. Do you remember 
the story of that tiny motherless 
girl, born without sight, and left 
soon after birth, to the care of a 
sturdy young father? The war 
came, and the young man enlisted. 
He found a home in which the little 
girl could be placed, packed up her 
poor possessions in a bundle, and 
made ready to take her to the 
selected place. A rainy day, with a 
stormy wind blowing, the two walk 
hand-in-hand down the hall of their 
own humble home to the doorway. 
Then out into the street. The arms 
of the father reach down and lift 
the tiny girl, the bundle is placed in 
her hands, and he says through his 
sobs: “It’s a bad day, dear. You 
carry this, and I'll carry you!” 


2r. Care—God’s 

“Do you suppose,” said Johnny, as 
his little cousin laid away her largest 
rosiest apple for a sick girl, “that 
God cares about such little things as 


we do? He is too busy taking care 
of the big folks to notice wu. 
much.” 

Winnie shook her head and 


pointed to mamma, who had just 
lifted the baby from the crib. “Do 


BELIEVER’S SECURITY 43 


you think,’ said Winnie, ‘that 
mamma is so busy with the big folks 
that she forgets the baby? She 
thinks of the baby first, ‘cause 


he’s the littlest. Surely God knows 
how to love as well as mother.’— 
Selected. 


22. Comfort—Warren Hastings’ 


It is related that Warren Hastings, 
Viceroy of India, when on. trial 
before Parliament, for High Crimes 
and Misdemeanors and Malfeasance 
in office, passed through that har- 
rowing and momentous experience 
without any visible mental perturb- 
ance or unrest, notwithstanding the 
tremendous issues at stake, and the 
torrents of denunciation poured 
from the eloquent lips of his great 
antagonist. When a _ sympathizing 
friend came to him to commiserate 
with him, and expressed his sur- 
prise at the amazing equanimity with 
which he endured it all, Mr. Hast- 
ings calmly pressed a secret spring 
in a massive gold ring he wore. It 
flew open, and the friend read 
engraven there, “And this, too, must 
Have an send.) “That,”..said, Mr. 
Hastings, “is the panacea for all my 


woes, the consciousness that all 
things earthly have an end.” It is 
true, trials and triumphs, sorrows 


and rejoicings, all have a common 


fate and find here an end. Why 
fret? 
23. Enemy—Kept From 

Bishop Gobat, while laboring 


among the wild tribes of the Druses, 
was one day invited by the chief to 
visit him. Now he long had desired 
to gain some influence over this man, 
and was eager to accept the invita- 
tion. But he was ill when the invi- 
tation came, and was obliged to 
decline. When the invitation was 
repeated he was again unable to 
accept. A third came, and he set 
out with a guide to go to the home 
of the chief. But the guide first 
lost his way, and soon after he had 


found it a hyena crossed his path 
and the superstitious man would go 
no farther. Thus hindered, the 
bishop was obliged to forego the 
visit, for the next day he sailed for 
Malta. Some time later he learned 
that by these means he had been 
hindered from falling into the hands 
of enemies who purposed murder- 
ing him. The treacherous chief him- 
self acknowledged, “That man must 
be the servant of God; for though I 
sent messenger after messenger to 
bring him, he was always hindered.” 
—Selected. 


24. Fear—Lacking 


Cesar was absolutely fearless. At 
seventeen, flying from Sylla, he was 
captured by pirates. They fixed his 
ransom at twenty talents. “It is too 
little, you shall have fifty, but once 
free, I will crucify every one of you,” 
he said. And he did. At Rome, 
when he heard of plots to assassi- 
nate him, he proudly dismissed his 
guards and walked the streets alone 
and unarmed. 


25. Fear Removed 


A little boy was detained in a 
country home one stormy night by 
some fascinating stories that were 
being ‘told. Finally he went to the 
door to start home, but it was so 
dark he was afraid to go. He asked 
his associates to go with him, but 
they too were afraid of the storm. 
It grew later and he cried, saying, 
“Oh, I wish I were home!” Pres- 
ently he brushed back his tears and 
opened the door as if he would 
brave the storm, but a flash of 
blinding lightning and a deafening 
roar of thunder frightened him back. 
In a few minutes he went to the 
window and, looking toward home, 
his tears dried away and he turned 
with a smile and said, “Now, I ain’t 
afraid to go home.” His friends 
said, “But it is dark out and still 
raining.” To this he replied, “I 
ain’t afraid of the dark now an’ I 


AA BELIEVER’S SECURITY 


ain’t afraid of the thunder an’ the 
rain, ’cause I see a lantern comin’ 
an’ it’s my big brother comin’ after 
me. I ain’t afraid o’ no storm when 
he holds my hand an’ carries a light, 
for he knows the way home an’ 
nothin’ can hurt me when my big 
brother walks with me.” With glad- 
ness of heart he joined his elder 
brother, who held his little hand and 
he was soon safe home, where a 
prepared supper and anxious loved 
ones awaited his coming—O. A. 
Newlin. 


26. God’s Comforting Presence 


When Dr. David Livingstone re- 
turned to Scotland after an absence 
of sixteen years in Africa, the Uni- 
versity of Glasgow desired to honor 
him by conferring on him the degree 
of Doctor of Laws. On such occa- 
sions candidates for honorary 
degrees usually expect an embarrass- 
ing reception at the hands of the 
young collegians who are present in 
full force, bubbling over with boyish 
fun. But when Dr. Livingstone ap- 
peared on the platform they received 
him with silent respect and rever- 
ence. He was gaunt and weary 
from exposure to sixteen years of 
African sun and twenty-seven 
attacks of African fever; one arm, 
having been rendered useless by the 
bite of a lion, hung helpless by his 
side. There stood a real hero who 
had fought many a battle for 
humanity, and his presence inspired 
a feeling of awe in the minds of all 
present. He told them that he was 
going back to Africa, partly to open 
new fields for British commerce, 
partly to suppress the African slave 
trade, and partly to open the way for 
the preaching of the gospel. But the 
sentiment which stirred all hearts 
most was this: “Shall I tell you what 
supported me through all these years 
of exile among a people whose lan- 
guage I could not understand, and 
whose attitude toward me _ was 
always uncertain and often hostile? 


It was this, ‘Lo, I am with you 
always even unto the end of the 


| world.’ ” 


27. God’s Protection 


My God hath sent his angel, and 
hath shut the lions’ mouths, and they 
have not hurt me. Dan. 6: 22. 

A young man was out in the 
Maine woods taking photographs of 
attractive bits of scenery. He came 
upon the mouth of a little cavern be- 
tween the rocks, and he thought, “I 
will see what sort of a picture I 
can get out of that cave,” and as it 
was a little late in the day, he 
decided to take a “time exposure” 
instead of a “snapshot.” Steadying 
the camera upon his knee as well as 
he could at the edge of the cave, he 
gave the sensitive plate a long, de- 
liberate look at the semi-darkness 
within, then continued on his way 
through the woods, and, after many 
hours, returned to his home. Several 
weeks afterward, on developing his 
picture, in the very center of the 
cavern, with arched back and bristly 
fur, and within springing distance 
of the spot where he had laboriously 
balanced his camera, was a huge 
Canadian lynx, that might have easily 
torn his eyes out and have destroyed 
his life. And yet, he came and went 
and saw no signs of danger. 

We walk in the midst of physical 
perils every day of our lives. We 
walk in the midst of moral perils 
more dangerous yet. How splendid 
the promise, “He that keepeth thee 
will neither slumber nor sleep.”— 
The Lutheran. 


28. Our Assurance 


Were you ever at sea in a storm, 
when the ship reeled to and fro like 
a drunken man, and struggling, as 
for life in the arms of death, now 
rose to the top of the billow, and 
now plunged into the trough of the 
sea? Partially infected with others’ 
terror, did you ever leave shrieking 


BELIEVER’S SECURITY 45 


women and pale men below, to seek 
the deck and look your danger 
bravely in the face? In such cir- 
cumstances I know nothing so reas- 
suring as . . . the calm con- 
fidence that sits on the brow of that 
weather-beaten man who with iron 
strength leans upon the wheel and 
steers our ship through the roaring 
billows. Such, only much higher, is 
the confidence we draw from the 
confidence of God, as expressed in 
the words, “I have spoken, and I will 
do it.’—Guthrie. 


29. Secure Foundation 


There used to be a huge old 
bridge, one of the covered kind, over 
the Connecticut River at Northamp- 
ton. Boys used it often. When they 
went for a tramp to Hadley, they 
crossed it; when they started for a 
swim, they slid down its embattle- 
ments and dove into the darkness 
beneath its floor; when the floods of 
spring came roaring down the valley 
and all the world went wild, they 
poked their heads out from its slits 
of windows and watched the logs 
go dancing down. 

Well, one day there came on a 
frightful storm, the lightning flashed, 
the thunder roared, and the wind 
howled, blustered, threatened: the 
whole huddle rushed to cover under 
the roof of the bridge. They had 
been fishing along the bank. In the 
middle of the storm, as the old 
structure creaked and_ rocked 
beneath the fury of the hurricane, 
one of the boys piped up, “Say, fel- 
lows, suppose the old bridge goes 
down!” They all edged along to- 
ward the entrance, might have 
scrambled clean out; but one young 
lad piped up in a high, shrill voice, 
“Huh, I guess I’ve trusted this old 
bridge too often to get skeered now. 
It won’t go down.” Here am I, a 
proof that it didn’t. 

It is so with God. We test him 
“in the darkness” as Moses did. In 
sorrow, in doubt, in temptation, we 


test him—when the call comes for us 
to pass into the great darkness, we 
pass and are not afraid. We know 
whom we have believed and are per- 
suaded that he is able to walk clear 
through the Valley of the Shadow 
with us and we with him—Peter 
Zaleski. 


jo. Security of Believers 


There is no more signal interposi- 
tion of the hand of God, than that 
which is seen in the destruction of 
the Spanish Invincible Armada. 
Philip II, Emperor of Spain, a 
bigoted, cruel, intolerant Catholic, 
had determined upon the destruction 
of Protestant England. She was 
selected for signal revenge. Ships 
of war of an uncommon size were 
built, naval store collected, provi- 
sions amassed, armies levied and 
plans laid for the fitting out of such 
a fleet as had never before been 
seen in Europe. So certain were 
they of success, that they designated 
the fleet, The Invincible Armada. 

All preparations being made, and 
the time drawing near for actual 
invasion, every hope was raised that 
proud England would be abased and 
Protestantism utterly annihilated. 
But never was it so patent that the 
“lot is cast into the lap; and the 
whole disposing thereof is of the 
Lord.” In the first place disappoint- 
ments began to arrive, in the fact 
that their great admiral was seized 
with fever, and died. The same fate 
overtook the vice-admiral, when a 
less skillful and experienced officer 
was appointed. Eventually the fleet 
sailed, and the very next day a vio- 
lent tempest scattered the ships, 
when some were sunk and others 
compelled to put into port. Again 
the ships are soon ready, and on 
them are placed the implements of 
torture, thumb screws, fetters, battle- 
axes and boarding pikes, by which 
the stern heretics of England were 
to pay the price of their defection 
from Rome. 


46 BIBLE 


Just right here, however, God 
interposed. It is true that the Eng- 


lish were calm, firm, courageous, and | 


did not fear to meet their foes, but 
the God of the elements took a hand 
in the battle. The “stars fought in 
their courses” for a righteous cause. 
The fire, wind and tempest were 
so many angels of death to the 
boasted invincibility of the Spaniard. 
Dismay and disaster overtook 
Philip and his armies, and a thrill of 
joy and thanksgiving pervaded all 
Protestantism. “His right hand and 
his holy arm hath gotten him the vic- 
tory.” 


31. Security of Believers 


Luther and Melancthon once 
wanted to cross the Elbe at Torgau 
during a terrific storm. Timid 
Melancthon tried to dissuade Luther 
from making the dangerous crossing 
and said: “Martin, do not cross over, 
the stars are against us!” Luther 
answered: “We are the Lord’s, con- 
sequently we are lords over the 
stars.” What a rich fullness of com- 
fort and trust lie in the words: “We 
belong to the Lord.” There is no 
danger greater than he, no sin, not 
even death is greater. And what a 
call to us to be faithful, wakeful of 
our duty in these same words! They 
ennoble us and enrich our life. And 
that is the goal of salvation to be 
his and to serve him. 


32. Trust—Perfect 


Bishop Bashford, in one of his 
Episcopal tours in China, was one 
night compelled to sleep outdoors, 
under the trees, the hotel keeper 
warning him about marauders. Be- 
ing watchful and wakeful awhile, 
he thought of these words of the 
Psalmist, and then said to the Lord, 
“There is no use both of us being 
awake,” so he slept the sleep of the 
just. In the morning he saw a 
watcher standing guard under a 
tree; the heathen man was helping 
God guard his own. 


BIBLE 


33. Bible—A Living 

I think of a missionary doctor on 
a lonely village station, a very able 
doctor, but even more effective as a 
Christian and a leader in evangeliza- 
tion. Not long ago a convert was 
being baptized—a rare event in that 
difficult area—and he was answering 
questions to test his very simple 
faith. One answer he began safely 
enough. “I believe in God Almighty, 
and in the Lord Jesus,” but then his 
training gave way to his experience, 
and turning to the doctor he burst 
out, “and, sahib, I believe in you.”— 
Frank Lenwood. 


34. Bible a Power 


“No greater moral change ever 
passed over a nation than passed 
over England during the years which 
parted the middle of the reign of 
Elizabeth from the meeting of the 
Long Parliament. England became 
the people of a book, and that book 
was the Bible.” Its literary effects 
were great, “but far greater was 
the effect of the Bible on the char- 
acter of the people at large.” “One 
dominant influence told on human 
action.” “The whole temper of the 
nation felt the change.” “A new 
conception of life, a new moral and 
religious pulse spread through every 
class.’”—J. R. Green. 


35. Bible and Business 
A country boy entered a city and 


_ applied for a position as clerk in a 


store. There were many applicants, 
but he obtained an interview with 
the proprietor, and was asked to 
show his recommendation papers. 
He opened his grip and in looking 
for a letter from an_ influential 
friend, a small Bible dropped out on 
the floor. “What have you there?” 
asked the merchant sharply. “The 
Bible my mother gave me upon leav- 
ing home for the city,” he calmly 
replied. “You do not mean to prac- 


BIBLE 47 


tice the precepts of that Book here 
in the city, do you?” was the further 
query. The young man, standing 
erect, said, “That is the promise I 
made my mother, sir, and I will keep 
that promise or return home to her.” 
Absolute sincerity showed in his face 
and it was impossible to doubt him. 
“Young man,” said the merchant, 
“vou have different credentials than 
the applicant just preceding you, who 
drew from his pocket with his letter 
of introduction two or three cards 
of a much used deck. I myself am 
not a Christian, but I appreciate the 
principles of that Book, and upon 
your pledge to practice those prin- 
ciples you need no further recom- 
mendation; the position is yours.”— 
O. A. Newlin. 


36. Bible and Science 


William Hanna Thompson 1n an 
article in November Everybody’s 
Magazine on germ enemies, says: At 
my first sitting as a member of 
the Bellevue Hospital Medical 
Board, the late Dr. H. B. Sands 
introduced a resolution, which was 
unanimously passed, that thereafter 
no major surgical operation should 
be undertaken at Bellevue. The 
reason given was that he and others 
of his colleagues lost at Bellevue 
all their cases of amputation, while 
at the newly constructed New York 
and Roosevelt Hospitals the same 
surgeons were uniformly successful. 
The supposition, therefore, was that 
the plastering and floors of old 
hospital building had somehow be- 
come infected with so much going 
on in them, but just how no one 
could guess. This resolution seemed 
like going back to the wisdom of 
the ancients, as reflected in a pas- 
sage in Leviticus, which directs that 
the plaster of the house of a leper 
be taken down and burned because 
the plaster itself had leprosy, a fact 
which modern science proves to be 
literally true. The same thing is 
true also of that first cousin of 


leprosy, the Bacillus of tuberculosis, 
which is quite fond of abiding on a 
shaded plaster wall. But at present 
the most serious surgical operations 
are performed at Bellevue with as 
good a record of success as in any 
other hospital, simply because the 
days of antiseptic surgery have 
come. 


37. Bible—Burning the 


A society of men of education 
and polished manners, but who 
were infidels, used to assemble at 
each other’s houses for the purpose 
of ridiculing the Scriptures, and of 
hardening one another in their un- 
belief. At last they unanimously 
formed a resolution solemnly to burn 
the Bible. The day fixed upon 
arrived; a large fire was prepared, 
a Bible was laid on the table, and 
a flowing bowl ready to drink its 
dirge. For the execution of their 
plan they fixed upon a young man 
of high birth, brilliant vivacity, and 
elegant manners. He undertook the 
task; and after a few enlivening 
glasses, amidst the applause of his 
jovial compeers, he approached the 
table, took up the Bible, and was 
walking leisurely forward to put it 
into the fire; but he was seized with 
trembling, paleness overspread his 
countenance, and he seemed con- 
vulsed. He returned to the table; 
and, laying down the Bible, said 
with a strong asseveration: “We will 
not burn that Book till we can get 
a better.” Soon after, this same 
gay and lively young man died, but 
before he died he was led to repent- 
ance, and derived hopes of forgive- 
ness and of future blessedness from 
that Book which he was once about 
to burn.—The Friend. 


38. Bible—Comfort in 

They were leading the bishop of 
Rochester to the scaffold. As the 
cruel framework loomed grimly on 
his sight, he bowed his head and 
prayed, “Now, O Lord direct me to 


48 BIBLE 


some passage which may support me 
through the awful scenes.” He 


forthwith opened his Testament and 


his eye lighted on the words, “This 
is life eternal, that they might know 
thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 
17: 3). Closing the Book, he said, 
“Praised be the Lord, this is suff- 
cient for time and for eternity.” 


39. Bible—Comfort of 


After the battle before Richmond 
had been over several days a man 
was found dead with his hand on 
the open Bible. The summer insects 
had taken the flesh from the hand, 
and there was nothing but the skele- 
ton fingers lay on the open page, and 
on this passage—‘Yea, though I 
walk through the valley of the sha- 
dow of death, I will fear no evil; 
Thy rod and Thy staff they com- 
fort me.” Well, the time will come 
when all the fine novels we have on 
our bedroom shelf will not interest 
us, and all the good histories and 
all the exquisite essays will do us no 
good. There will be one Book, per- 
haps its cover worn out and its 
leaf yellow with age, under whose 
flash we shall behold the opening 
gates of heaven.—Talmage. 


go. Bible Difficulties 


An infidel stood in the center of 
an admiring group of passengers on 
a trans-Atlantic liner, entertaining 
them by his insolent ridicule of the 
Scriptures. “The Bible is full of 
contradictions,” he explained. “For 
instance in one place, we are told 
that Judas went and hanged himself, 
and in another that he bought a field 
and fell headlong in the midst and 
his bowels gushed out. Now, how in 
the name of common sense could 
both those statements be true?” The 
crowd laughed, but an old Quaker, 
who was standing near at the time, 
cried out: “Easy enough—the rope 
broke.” 


v 


41. Bible Difficulties 


The story is told of a young theo- 
logical student who one day came 
to Mr. Spurgeon, telling him that the 
Bible contained some verses which 
he could not understand, and about 
which he was very much worried. 
To this the great man of God re- 
plied: “Young man, allow me to give 
you this word of advice: You must 
expect to let God know some things 
which you do not understand.” The 
student took the words of wisdom 
to heart—From the Record of 
Christian Work. 


42. Bible First 


Physiology shows us how inevit- 
ably the food on which one subsists 
determines the texture of his flesh. 
Can the daily newspaper, the light 
romance, and the secular magazine, 
build up the fiber and tissue of a true 
spiritual character? We are not put- 
ting any surly prohibition on these 
things; but when we think of the 
place which they hold in modern 
society, and with how many Chris- 
tians they constitute the larger share 
of the daily reading, there is sug- 
gested a very serious theme for 
reflection. As the solemn necessity 
is laid upon the sinner of choosing 
between Christ and the world, so is 
the choice pressed upon the Chris- 
tian between the Bible and litera- 
ture—that is, the choice as to which 
shall hold the supreme place—A. J. 
Gordon. 


43. Bible—Following the 


Twenty-five years ago much of 
northern Michigan was entirely new 
country, covered with dense forests. 
The best woodsman was liable to 
lose his way unless he carried a 
pocket compass. A settler of those 
days tells this story: “One day I had 
been walking in the woods, when, 
though I could not see the sun or 
sky, I knew by the settling dark- 
ness that night was coming on, and 
started, as I thought, for home. I 


BIBLE 49 


was so certain of my direction that 
for some time I did not look at my 
compass. On doing so, however, I 
was greatly surprised to find 
that, whereas I thought I was going 
east, in reality I was bound due 
west. Not only was I surprised, but 
I was so sure of my own judg- 
ment and so disgusted with my com- 
pass that I raised my arm to throw 
it away. Then pausing, I thought, 
“You have never lied to me yet, and 
ll trust you once more.” I fol- 
lowed it and came out all right. The 
Bible is a compass that has guided 
millions to heaven. Some would 
throw it away, but those who follow 
it always come out safely.—Selected. 


44. Bible—Forsaking the 


A story is told of a minister who 
taught an old man in his parish to 
read. He proved a proficient 
scholar. After the teaching had 
come to an end the minister was not 
able to call at the cottage for some 
time, and when he did he only found 
the wife at home. ‘“How’s John?” 
said he. “He’s canny, sir,” said the 
wife. “How does he get on with his 
reading?” “Nicely, sir.” “Ah! I 
suppose he will read his Bible very 
comfortably now.” “Bible, — sir! 
Bless you! he was out of the Bible 
and into the newspaper long ago.” 
There are many other persons who, 
like this old man, have long been 
out of the Bible and into the news- 
paper. They have forsaken the 
fountain of Living Waters, and have 
gone about among muddy pools and 
stagnant morasses to seek something 
which might slake their thirst.— 
Clerical Library. 


45. Half Reading 


A certain wayward young man 
ran away from home and was not 
heard of for years. In some way, 
hearing that his father had just died, 
he returned home and was kindly 
received by his mother. 

The day came for the reading of 


the will; the family were all 
gathered together, and the lawyer 
commenced to read the document. 
To the great surprise of all present 
the will told in detail of the way- 
ward career of the run-away son. 
The boy in anger arose, stamped out 
of the room, left the house, and was 
not heard of for three years. When 
eventually he was found he was in- 
formed that the will, after telling of 
his waywardness, had gone on to 
bequeath to him $15,000. How much 
of sorrow he would have been saved, 
if he had only heard the reading 
through. 

Thus many people only half read 
the Bible and turn from it dissatis- 
fied. The old Book says: “The 
wages of sin is death,” yea, verily, 
but it says more, it says, “but the 
gift of God is Eternal Life.”—Evans. 


46. Bible—Holding to the 


A friend in England, a charming 
mimic, told me the following story 
about the late Doctor Parker many 
years ago. And Oh! how I wish I 
could tell it with the look and voice 
and tone with which it was told to 
me. | 

“IT have been found fault with,” 
said the Doctor from his pulpit one 
day, “for not treating questions 
scientifically. People say, ‘you are 
always quoting the Bible; why don’t 
you appeal to Science and tell us 
what it has got to say about things?’ 

“Well, I am going to appeal to 
Science this morning. There is a 
poor widow here who has lost her 
only son, and she wishes to know if 
she will ever see him again. And 
I am going to ask Science for an 
answer to her question. So we will 
put away the Bible.” (Here the 
Doctor lifted the Bible off the pulpit 
desk and put it on the seat behind 
him.) 

“Will this poor woman ever see 
her son again? That is the question 
Science is to answer. What has 
become of him? Where is he? 


50 BIBLE 


Does death end all? What does 
Science say to these questions?” 

(Here followed a long pause, Doc- 
tor Parker staring straight before 
him and saying nothing.) 

“We are treating this question, you 
see, scientifically. We have put away 
the Bible, and we want to know 
what light Science throws on this 
poor woman’s difficulty. What has 
become of her boy?” 

(Another long pause, and dead 
silence. ) 

“The time is getting on, and she 
is waiting for an answer. Surely 
she is entitled to one? A most prac- 
tical question; and if Science can 
throw real light on anything, surely 
it must have something to say in a 


case like this? Science, will this 
poor woman ever see her son 
again?” 

(Another very long pause, and 
dead silence as before.) 

“Science, we are waiting! We 


have put away the Bible, and we 
wish to treat this question in a purely 
scientific way. Will this poor 
woman ever see her son again?” 

“We don’t seem to be getting on! 
The poor woman’s heart is likely 
to break, and she is waiting for an 
answer. What am I to say to her? 
What answer does Science give?” 

“What? What? What? Has 
Science nothing to say? nothing to 
say to a practical question like that? 
Nothing to say to the most practical 
of all questions?” 

“Ah! Then, we must just go 
back to the Old Book after all!” 
(Here Doctor Parker turned round, 
lifted the Bible off the seat, and 
replaced it, with great deliberation ; 
then opened it and read: 

“I shall go to him, but he shall 
not return to me.” “The 
dead men shall live, together, with 
my dead body shall they arise.” 
his “Tl am the resurrection and 
the life.” “Ror this cor- 
ruptible must put on incorruption, 
and this mortal must put on im- 


mortality. ©O death, where is thy 
sting? O grave, where is thy vic- 
tory?” “And I saw the dead, 
small and great, stand before God.” 
-) , «°° “And: so. shall? wetever ne 
with the Lord. Wherefore comfort 
one another with these words.” 
Then closing the Bible, and patting 
it affectionately, Doctor Parker 
ended by saying: “No; we'll stick to 
the Old Book; we’ll stick to the Old 
Book.’—The Morning Watch. 


47. Bible Indestructible 


More than a hundred years ago 
Voltaire declared that there would 
not be a copy of the Bible on earth 
in a hundred years. Voltaire is 
dead, and one may barely recall the 
date of his death. The Geneva Bible 
Society is using the very printing 
press on which his infidel prophecy 
was issued. To-day four hundred 
million copies of the sacred Scrip- 
tures, in fully three hundred tongues, 
are in circulation, like leaves of the 
forests, for the healing of the 
nations. The Bible societies of 
America and Europe pledge them- 
selves to furnish every family in 
the land with a Bible without money 
and without price where no copy is 
found. 


48. Bible Its Own Witness 


Conspicuous in John Randolph’s 
library was a Family Bible. Sur- 
rounding it were many books, some 
for and others against its truthful- 
ness as an inspired revelation. One 
day Mr. Randolph had a clergyman 
as his guest, and the Family Bible 
became a topic of conversation. The 
eccentric orator said, “I was raised 
by a pious mother (God bless her 
memory!), who taught me _ the 
Christian religion in all its require- 
ments. But, alas! I grew up an 
infidel—if not an infidel complete, 
yet a decided deist. But when I be- 
came a man, in this as well as in 
political and all other matters, I 
resolved to examine for myself, and 


BIBLE 51 


never to pin my faith to any other 
man’s sleeve. So I bought that 
Bible; I pored over it; I examined it 
carefully. I sought and procured 
those books for and against it; and 
when my labors were ended I came 
to this irresistible conclusion: The 
Bible is true. It would have been as 
easy for a mole to have written Sir 
Isaac Newton’s treatise on Optics as 
for uninspired men to have written 
the Bible.”—Christian Age. 


49. Bible—Leaf by Leaf 


Oh the victory of the cross !— 
we know what it can do in individual 
lives. They called him Ted the 
Snag in Australia, for he was so vile. 
For nine years he had never slept in 
a bed. Such a miserable object was 
he that a decent man would not 
speak to him. He told me with his 
own lips that he was lying in the 
gutter one Sunday morning almost 
insensible from drink, when an 
Anglican clergyman came along, and 
as he passed said some word that 
was not kind. Ted raised himself on 
his elbow and said, “See here, sir, 
you go and tell your people that you 
said a mean thing to Ted the Snag.” 
He was so vile that nobody would 
have anything to do with him except 
his wife, and one night he struck 
her, and she left him. When he 
knew the house was vacant he went 
back, but found nothing there except 
a Bible. He was so angry that he 
tore up the blessed book leaf by 
leaf and burned it, and as he burned 
it the Spirit of God came to him and 
said, “You burn it leaf by leaf, and 
you will study it leaf by leaf;” and, 
said Ted, “I knew it would come 
true.” One night during the mission 
Ted the Snag staggered in. The 
Missioner said, “Anybody who wants 
to be saved raise a hand.” Ted 
says, “I put up one hand, then the 
other, then one foot, and I would 
have put up both feet if I could have 
done it, I was so anxious to be 
saved.” That man is to-day going 


up and down Australia, proclaiming 
the evangel of the cross with a 
power that can hardly be equalled. 


50. Bible—Light on 


When President Hitchcock of 
Amherst College assembled a science 
class in a new recitation room with 
sky windows, the introduction to his 
lecture was, “Young men, all the 
light we have here comes from 
above.” How can we hope to under- 
stand the Bible without that clarify- 
ing light “from above,” for “The 
natural man receiveth not the things 
of the Spirit of God; they are fool- 
ishness unto him; neither can he 
know them, because they are spir- 
itually discerned.”—O. A. Newlin. 


51. Bible—Loving the Author of 


A young lady asked to explain 
devotional reading of the Bible, 
answered: “Yesterday morning I 
received a letter from one to whom I 
have given my heart and devoted my 
life. I freely confess to you that 
I have read that letter five times, not 
because I did not understand it at 
the first reading, nor because I ex- 
pected to commend myself to the 
author by frequent reading of his 
epistle. It was not with me a ques- 
tion of duty, but simply one of 
pleasure. I read it because I am 
devoted to him who wrote it. To 
read the Bible with that motive is 
to read it devotionally, and to one 
who reads it in that spirit it is indeed 
a love letter.” 

This young Christian’s explanation 
is beautifully clear. The heart has 
not a little to do in interpreting 
God’s word. 


52. Bible—Modern 


An intelligent young Chinaman 
came to Doctor Dean, the mission- 
ary, and brought back the Bible that 
had been given to him to examine. 
He pointed to some chapters he had 
found in it, and said: “You told me 
your book was very old, but look 


52 


at that; you have written that your- 
self since you came here. It is all 
about Chinamen!” 


53. Bible Reading 


A great many have a superstitious 
feeling about reading the Bible. Men 
carry texts as Indians carry amulets, 
with the superstitious idea that God 
will bless them to their good. The 
mere reading of the Bible, or carry- 
ing of texts, will not do you any 
good. A man may own a farm, and 
yet go to the poorhouse. His-land 
must be cultivated, or it will do him 
no good.—H. W. Beecher. 


54. Bible Reading—Daily 


Some years ago a lady went to 
consult a famous physician about 
her health. She was a woman of 
nervous temperament. She gave the 
doctor a list of her symptoms, and 
answered his questions only to be 
astonished at his brief prescription at 
the end: “Go home and read your 
Bible an hour a day, then come back 
to me a month from to-day.” And 
he bowed her out before she could 
protest. 

At first she was inclined to be 
angry; then she reflected that at 
least the prescription was not an 
expensive one. She went home 
determined to read conscientiously 
her negiected Bible. In one month 
she went back to the doctor’s office 
a different person, and asked him 
how he knew that was just what she 
needed. 

For answer the physician turned to 
his desk. There worn and marked 
lay an open Bible. “Madam,” he said, 
“if I were to omit my daily read- 
ing of this Book, I would lose my 
greatest force of strength and skill.” 


55. Bible—The Personal 


I was once called to visit a dying 
lady, in the city of Philadelphia, of 
an English family. She and her hus- 
band were in a boarding house there. 
I spent much time with her, knelt 


BIBLE 


often in prayer with her, and with 
great delight. Her husband was an 
Atheist, an English Atheist—a cold- 
hearted English Atheist. There is 
no such being beside him on the face 
of the globe. That was her husband. 
On the day in which that sweet 
Christian woman died she put her 
hand under the pillow and pulled out 
a little beautiful well-worn English 
Bible. She brought out that sweet 
little Bible, worn and thumbed and 
moistened with tears. She called 
her husband, and he came; and she 
said, “Do you know this little book ?” 
and he answered, “It is your Bible.” 
Replied she, “It is my Bible; it has 
been everything to me. It has con- 
verted, strengthened, cheered, and 
saved me. Now I am going to Him 
that gave it to me, and I shall want 
it no more; open your hands’—and 
she put it in between his hands and 
pressed his two hands together. “My 
dear husband, do you know what I 
am doing?” “Yes, dear; you are 
giving me your Bible.” “No, darling, 
I am giving you your Bible, and God 
has sent me to give you this sweet 
book before I die. Put it in your 
hands; now put it in your bosom— 
will you keep it there? Will you 
read it for me?” “I will, my dear.” 

I placed this dear lady, dead, in 
the tomb behind my church. Per- 
haps three weeks afterward that big 
Englishman came to my study weep- 
ing profusely. “Oh, my friend,” 
said he, “my friend, I have found 
what she meant—I have found what 
she meant!—it is my Bible; oh! it 
is my Bible; every word in it was 
written for me. I read it over day 
by day; I read it over night by 
night; I bless God it is my Bible. 
Wiil you take me into your church 
where she was?” “With all my 
heart”—and that proud, worldly, 
hostile man, hating this blessed Bible, 
came, with no arguments, with no 
objection, with no difficulties sug- 
gested, with no questions to unravel, 
but binding it upon his heart of 





BIBLE 53 


memory and love. It was God’s 
message of direct salvation to his 
soul, as if there were not another 
Bible in Philadelphia, and an angel 
from heaven had brought him this. 
—Tyng. 


56. Bible—Way of Life 


A young miller in Sweden, named 
John Svenson, was. converted by 
reading the Bible. As he had become 
a new creature, he refused to con- 
tinue the old life of sin, which 
angered his comrade, Andrew Peter- 
son, son of the mill-owner. One day 
when John had gone out, Andrew 
found his Bible and decided to 
destroy it, as it was the cause of the 
change in his friend. Before throw- 
ing it into the stream that turned the 
mill wheel, he opened the book at 
random and his eyes fell upon the 
words in Matt. 24: 41: “Two shall 
be grinding at the mill; the one 
shall be taken and the other left.” 


- The look had been brief, but the 


words had flashed into the heart like 
lightning and he found himself read- 
ing them again and again. Instead 
of throwing the Book away, he 
placed it back in John’s room, and 
upon his return, asked his aid in 
finding the path of life. 

A young lady found her chamber- 
maid reading the Word and said to 
her: “You poor melancholic soul, 
how can you find pleasure in reading 
such a book!” Early next morning 
the maid found her mistress bathed 
in tears after a sleepless night, and 
upon inauiring the reason, the lady 
gave her this answer: “I saw one 
word in your book and that has 
robbed me of my rest, that awful 
word, eternity.” 


57. Bible—Wisdom of 


The fact that the Standard Oil 
Company discovered oil and is 
operating wells in Egypt is generally 
known but the reason for its going 
to that ancient land to look for oil is 
probably not so well known. It is 


asserted that one of the directors of 
the company happened to read the 
second chapter of Exodus. The 
third verse caught his attention. It 
states that the ark of bulrushes 
which the mother of Moses made for 
her child was “daubed with slime and 
with pitch.” This gentleman rea- 
soned that where there was pitch 
there must be oil, and if there was 
oil in Moses’ time it is probably still 
there. So the company sent out 
Charles Whitshott, its geologist and 
oil expert, to make investigations, 
with the result that oil was dis- 
covered. Three wells are now in 
operation and others are to be 
opened.—Chicago Daily News. 

(The Am. Rev. margin gives 
“bitumen” for slime.) 


58. Bible—Word of Life 


About the year 1855, Murata, a 
brave, trusty Japanese officer in the 
employ of the Baron of Hizen, 
whose business it was to see that no 
student, hungry for Western knowl- 
edge, should slip out of Japan by 
way of the English ships, while per- 
sonally inspecting the means of 
defense and guard along the coast, 
saw floating on the water a little 
book which in type, binding, and lan- 
guage was different from anything 
he had seen. After wary inquiries, 
he learned that the little book told 
about the Creator of the universe, 
Jesus, who taught his mind and 
truth. He thereupon started to find 
out about its message. Twelve years 
later, Murata and two others were 
baptized at Nagasaki by Verbeck— 
the first fruits of the gospel cast 
upon the water, literally, and used 
by the Providence of God. 


59. Danger—Seeking 

“Some ministers who are always 
trying to find flaws in the Bible 
remind me of a boy I saw recently 
who persisted in walking on the rail- 
ing of a bridge in crossing the 
stream, though the whole of the pas- 


54 BIBLE 


sageway was at his disposal. That 
some are intent on keeping as far 


away from safety as possible is a. 


strange fact.” 


60. God’s Word Powerful 


A Jewess of wealth and position 
noticed an advertisement of some 
article which she fancied, that would 
accompany the purchase of a Bible. 
She sent an order for the sake of 
what she wanted, and tossed the 
unwelcome book aside; but in an idle 
hour, later, picked it up and turned 
its pages. The New Testament was 
unfamiliar and she glanced at it 
curiously, becoming interested before 
she knew. 

She fought against belief, but it 
gradually forced itself upon her, and 
she found herself in deep trouble. 
Confessing her faith meant the loss 
of property and home, the heart- 
break of father and mother, even 
separation from her husband, but 
she could not remain silent. 

All that she feared was threatened 
in those awful days, but because they 
loved her, and to prove her error, 
her family also read the despised 
Gospel. Earth’s unending miracle 
was repeated; they found what she 
had found, and looked wondering 
into each other’s faces, a Christian 
household.—Forward. 


61. Lamb’s Book of Life 


Some time ago three children—ten, 
seven, and four years old—arrived in 
St. Louis, having traveled all the 
way from Germany, without any 
escort or protection beyond a New 
Testament and their own innocence 
and helplessness. Their parents, 
who had emigrated from the Father- 
land and settled in Missouri, left 
them in charge of an aunt, to whom 
they forwarded money sufficient to 
pay the expenses of the little ones 
to their new home across. the 
Atlantic. As the children could not 
speak any other language than Ger- 
man, it is doubtful whether they 


would ever have reached their desti- 
nation had not their aunt provided 
them with a passport, addressed not 
so much to an earthly authority as to 
Christian mankind generally. She 
gave the elder girl a New Testament, 
instructing her to show it to every 
person who might accost her, and 
especially to call their attention to 
the first leaf of the book. Upon that 
leaf were written the names of the 
three children, their birthplace and 
several ages, and this simple state-— 
ment :—“Their father and mother in 
America are anxiously awaiting their 
arrival at Sedalia, Missouri.” This 
was followed by the _ irresistible 
appeal—their guide, safeguard, and 
interpreter throughout a journey of 
more than four thousand miles— 
“Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch 
as ye have done it unto one of the 
least of these my brethren, ye have 
done it unto me.” Many were the 
acts of kindness shown to the little 
travelers, many the hands held out 
to smooth their journey, until they 
reached their parents in perfect 
safety. 


62. Law—Perfect 


After ten years of patient work, 
experts in London have finished what 
is said to be the most perfect yard 
stick in the world. It is made of 
platinum and iridium, and was 


‘designed to be used as the standard 


of the British government. Every 
year for ten years it will be 
examined and if it varies by a 
millionth of an inch it will be 
rejected. 

The Bible is the Christian’s stand- 
ard for his rule of conduct. Its 
principles never change. “The law 
of the Lord is perfect.” 


63. Life—Sign of 

A Hindu fakir, with matted hair 
and ash-besmeared body, was. sit- 
ting under a tree in deep meditation. 
His eyes fell on the leaves of a torn 
book which some one had tossed 


BROTHERHOOD 55 


away. It was part of the New 
Testament. He smoothed out the 
crumpled pages and read words 
which brought strange thoughts to 
his hungry soul—they seemed to take 
him by the hand and lead him 
straight to the Father. Then he set 
out to seek for some one who obeyed 
the book. He found an Englishman 
who confessed that he obeyed it. 
The fakir, delighted, noticed that the 
Englishman wore a black band on 
his arm, and concluded that this was 
the distinctive sign of a Christian. 
So he put a black band on his own 
arm, and when people asked who he 
was, he pointed to the band and told 
them. Some time later the fakir 
wandered for the first time into a 
church and listened to a Christian 
preacher. At the close he announced 
that he, too, was a follower of this 
way, and pointed to the band as a 
proof. They explained that it was 
an English sign of the death of 
some loved one. The fakir mused 
for a moment; then he answered, 
“But I read in the book that my 
Loved One has died, so I shall wear 
it in memory of him.” Betore long, 
however, he grasped the Gospel of 
the resurrection, and when he real- 
ized that his Loved One was alive 
for evermore, a great joy filled his 
heart. He took off the band from 
his arm, and the light of the resur- 
rection shone in his face—and that 
became the sign. 


64. Sword of the Word 


We are told that the grey heron 
has a very singular mode of defense. 
When attacked by the eagle or falcon 
it simply stands quiet and firm, using 
its bill as a sword, allowing the 
enemy to pierce himself through by 
his own force. The Christian’s 
method of defense is very similar. 
We have the sword of the Spirit 
which is the Word of God. When 
attacked by the enemy, without or 
within, stand firm and display the 
Word, hold it forth. The more 


fiercely the foe attacks the more 
surely shall they pierce themselves 
with it. His Word is a fire, all that 
cross it shall be burned. “Stand 
therefore, having your loins girt 
about with truth” (Eph. 6: 14).— 
James Smith. 


BROTHERHOOD 


65. Brother—Called 


Turgenieff in one of his parables 
tells of meeting a beggar, who held 
out his greasy hands for alms. Tur- 
genieff searched all his pockets, but 
had no money, no food, nothing 
whatever to give the man. He said 
to him, “I am sorry brother, that I 
have nothing for thee.” The beg- 
gar’s face brightened and he said, 
“That is enough. Thank you.” To 
be called “brother” was better than 
any alms would have been. We may 
not give money to the mendicant on 
the street, but we may show him 
kindness, the spirit of brotherhood, 
and that will be worth more to him 
than the largest alms. It will glad- 
den and cheer his heart, and bring 
to him a little warmth of the love 
of Christ. 


66. Brother—Helping a Weak 


Professor Dager often took his 
large dog with him on his walks in 
the mountains. The dog liked to 
cross the mountain streams by jump- 
ing from rock to rock. One day, the 
large dog did not cross the stream 
as usual, but went a long way up the 
valley to a small bridge. Why? 
Because the little dog could not 
jump as he could and in trying, 
would have fallen into the stream. 
He therefore went the roundabout 
way for the sake of his weak com- 
panion. This dog acted better than 
many Christians do. But for us to 
act as he did, is to fulfill the law 
of Christ. 


67. Brother-—Helping Blind 
An interesting story of brotherly 


56 


love and courageous work under the 
affliction of total blindness was 
recently unveiled at McGill Univer- 
sity, Montreal, Can. Thomas S. 


Stewart nine years ago injured one | 


of his eyes with a knife. A special- 
ist decided that it should be removed 
to save the other. When the opera- 
tion was over and he recovered from 
the anzesthetic, it was discovered that 
the operator had blundered by re- 
moving the sound eye, so making the 
young man totally blind. Notwith- 
standing this he undertook to pursue 
his studies in law at McGill. He 
was able to do this by the aid of his 
brother, William Stewart, who read 
to him and accompanied him 
through all the different phases of 
college life. The blind brother came 
out at the head of his class, while 
the other came second. The latter 
practically making himself a seeing 
medium for his blind brother. 


68. Brotherhood 


The two greatest missionary docu- 
ments known to history are the 
Lord’s Prayer and the parable of the 
Prodigal Son. If you have ever 
read the parable of the Prodigal 
Son as the agony of a _ bereaved 
father’s heart you will find that mis- 
sions are placed in the very heart 
of our God and Father, whose name 
we bear. And if you have ever said, 
“Our Father,” you have felt the call 
and passion of brotherhood that runs 
through the whole of the missionary 
movement. It is there that Jesus 
laid the foundation of all this mis- 
sionary enterprise. 

Luther said: “My coat of arms 
shall be a heart that has the color 
of human flesh upon it, warm with 
human love, and in it shall be planted 
the cross, the black cross, that shows 
the sacredness of sacrificial suffer- 
ing, and that shall be set in a rose 
of the purest white—the purity and 
strength of character that God can 
give to those that suffer—and back 
of it all shall be that ground of blue 


BROTHERHOOD 


that brings heaven nearer to earth, 
and around it shall be the golden 
ring of perfectedness and eternity 
as a symbol of what Jesus Christ 
has done for men.”—Professor O. E. 
Brown. 


69. Deeds and Creeds 


A housegirl once sought member- 
ship in Mr. Spurgeon’s Metropolitan 
Tabernacle. She was refused at 
first, when Mr. Spurgeon called her 
back and asked for further evidence 
of her change of heart. Replying, 
the domestic said: “I have none 
except that now I sweep under the 
mats and rugs in the house where 
I am employed.” “It is enough,” 
said Mr. Spurgeon, “we will receive 
you into our fellowship.” “A sweep- 
ing’ action which George Herbert 
says is “fine.” 


70. Deeds—Power of Good 


The example of a kindness 1s 
never lost. A newsboy took the 
Sixth avenue elevated railroad car 
in New York, and sliding into one 
of the cross seats fell asleep. At 
Grand street two young women got 
on, and took seats opposite the lad. 
His feet were bare and his hat had 
fallen off. Presently one young girl 
leaned over and placed her muff 
under the little fellow’s dirty cheek. 
An old gentleman in the next seat 
smiled at the act, and without say- 
ing anything, held out a quarter, 
with a nod toward the boy. The 
next man just as silently offered a 
dime; and a woman across the aisle, 
held out some pennies, and, before 
she knew it, the girl with flaming 
cheeks had taken money from every 
passenger in that end of the car. 
She quietly slid the amount into the 
sleeping lad’s pocket, removed her 
muff gently from under his head 
without rousing him, got off at 
Twenty-third street, nodding to all 
the passengers in a _ pretty little 
inclination of the head that seemed 
full of thanks and a common secret. 


— Jee yee ee a eee eee EL ee ee 


BROTHERHOOD 57 


This rebukes Ingersoll’s sneer that 
if he had been God he would have 
had good things catching. They are 
catching and God made them so. 


71. Creed and Deed 


One day, Cicero tells the story in 
his treatise “On Old Age,” an aged 
Athenian came into the theater, but 
not one of his fellow-citizens in that 
immense crowd would incommode 
himself to make room for him. As, 
however, he approached the ambas- 
sadors from Lacedzemon, who had 
their own special seat, they all rose 
to receive him into their midst. The 
whole assembly burst into applause. 
Whereupon somebody said, ‘The 
Athenians know what is good, but 
they will not practice it.”—Christian 
Family. 


72. Fellowship—Earthly 


Said a gentleman recently: “I 
went to the city of N , and the 
first thing I did was to present my 
church letter. After being formally 
received by the pastor, I passed 
down the aisle to my seat. I noticed 
in one of the pews a fine-looking 
man. Many members came to me at 
the close of the service and wel- 
comed me, but this man passed out 
without as much as noticing me. The 
next week I entered the lodge. 
The day after, a gentleman came 
running across the street through 
the mud to meet me. Introducing 
himself, he said, ‘I saw you at lodge 
last night. I want to welcome you.’ 
It was the same man whom I had 
noticed in the church, of which he 
was a prominent member. He never 
thought of giving me a welcome as 
a member of the church, but as a 
member of the lodge he was prompt 
and profuse in his recognition.” 


73. Friend—A Faithful 

Picture to yourself a man lying 
upon a bed in a rough shanty in the 
Rocky Mountains. He has a bullet 
in his chest, and he has sent for his 








great friend, the doctor. Some 
months before he had been amazed 
by the change which had taken place 
in the doctor’s life, and, when he 
asked his friend what was the cause 
of it, the doctor had given him his 
own New Testament, and had said: 
“Read the Gospels in this.” Mexico 
had done so, and as he read, his 
heart went out to the wonderful Man 
who went about doing good, and 
whose courage and love and power 
filled him with amazement. But 
when he came to the end and saw 
Jesus go to the Cross without effort 
to save himself, he could not under- 
stand how that mighty Man could 
let his enemies kill him. And now, 
as he lay on his bed, the same won- 
dering question filled his mind. At 
last, by the evening train the doctor 
came. When the message came, he, 
too, was lying upon his bed in great 
pain, but at the summons he rose up 
and went to save his friend. 

When Mexico saw the doctor’s 
face, white and drawn with pain, he 
cried out, “Doctor, you shouldn’t 
have come; you’re worse than me.” 
“All right,” said the doctor, “I had 
to come. One can’t go back on one’s 
friend.” Mexico looked at him 
steadily, and then suddenly a light 
came into his eyes, and, with quiver- 
ing lips, he cried: “Doctor, I know 
now why he let them kill him.” 
“Why?” said the doctor. “Because 
he couldn’t go back on his friends.” 

That was it. In the self-sacrifice 
of his friend, the rough backwoods- 
man saw the meaning of the Cross 
of Christ. “He couldn’t go back on 
his friends.” 

The bullet was extracted, and the 
wound bound up. The doctor spent 
a restless night of pain in the ad- 
joining room, and then, as the time 
drew near for him to catch the morn- 
ing train back to the hospital, he 
went in to visit his patient once 
more. When he had attended to the 
wound, he leant over the sick man 
to say good-bye. “Doctor,” said the 


58 BROTHERHOOD 


man, “I can’t tell you what I feel. 
My heart is too full, but—you make 
me think of him.” 


74. Influence—Blessed 


When Bishop William Burt re- 
tired from active service because he 
had reached the age limit, there was 
presented to him a bound volume 
containing autographic tributes from 
all those who had served with him 
on the Deaconess Board of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. The 
following letter is a most tender 
tribute to friendship: 


“Dear Bishop Burt: 

“Your years have passed like sun- 
light. They were beautiful, and 
filled with service in the old world 
and the new. God has been with 
you, and you have been with God. 

“Would you might live a hundred 
years to bless mankind, but wherever 
you are, in earth or heaven, you will 
like the place. You make it good 
to live where you are around. 

“You have blessed my life, and I 
want to live with you forever in the 
skies. 

“Your brother everywhere, 
“William A. Quayle.” 


75. Man’s Value 


Street Car Driver: “Me and that 
off-horse has been working for the 
company for twelve years now.” 

Passenger: “That so? The com- 
pany must think a great deal of you 
and the nag.” 

Street Car Driver: “Well, I 
dunno; last week the two of us was 
taken sick and they got a doctor for 
the horse and docked me. Gid-dap 
there, now Betsy.” 


76. Religion—Practical 


Peter is in ecstasy amid these sur- 
roundings. He desires to remain 
on the Mount. He says in rapture, 
“Tt is good for us to be here.” He 
would rather remain there for ever, 
than go down from the mountain 


and engage in the practical duties of 
life. But his request is denied him. 
Sometimes, in revival meetings, you 
have felt in the same way. There 


- are duties outside of the revival. 


Longfellow, in one of his poems, 
pictures a youth, who, in winter, 
seizes a banner and begins the ascent 
of a mountain. He gradually leaves 
behind him the fields, the stores, the 
workshops, the dwellings, and the 
neighbors. As he rises higher and 
higher he shouts, “Excelsior.” His 
voice grows fainter and fainter, until 
heard no more. He has gone so 
high, that the atmosphere in which 
he moves has become too thin to 
sustain life, and he dies. So it is no 
uncommon thing to see professed 
Christians taking the banner of the 
Cross and crying, “Hallelujah,” 
“Amen,” rise higher and _ higher, 
emotionally, until they leave behind 
them this practical world. They 
lose sight of the duties of every-day 
life. They are too high to give 
much attention to such matters as 
speaking the truth, keeping their 
temper, restraining their tongue from 
slander, and paying their debts. 
They have become too religious to 
give much concern to these things. 
But these persons soon reach an 
altitude where the atmosphere is too 
thin for them to live, and they die. 
It is one thing to be religious on 
the Mount of Transfiguration, and 
another thing not to deny our Lord 
in the world below. Instead of this 
gushing religion, let us have one that 
touches the ground—lIrving A. 
Searles. 


77. Righteousness—Garments of 


The Rev. Mark Guy Pearse has 
always figured prominently in the 
work of saving and helping men. 
Dr. Wilbur F. Crafts tells this inci- 
dent of the London Methodist 
preacher. One bitter winter night 
he had taken a cab from a London 
suburb, and on reaching home bade 
the driver come in and get some- 


CHILDREN 59 


thing warm and comfortable, but 
non-intoxicating. He noticed that 
the “cabby” had no overcoat and 
inquired how it was he was so in- 
sufficiently clad. The man explained 
his poverty, and Mr. Pearse said, 
“Well now I have a coat upstairs 
that would suit you, but before I 
give it to you, I’m bound to tell you 
there is something peculiar about 
it, and it is right I should explain 
it to you before you put it on.” 

“What's that, sir?” said cabby, con- 
siderably mystified and not know- 
ing whether he might not find it 
wise to decline the offer of the 
mysterious garment. 

Said Mr. Pearse, “That coat never 
had a glass of beer or spirits inside 
of it from the day it was made until 
now. I want you to promise me that 
as long as you wear that coat you 
will let the drink alone.” 

“All right, sir,” holding out his 
right hand, “all right, sir; I don’t 
upset the coat by putting any drink 
inside of it.” Many months after- 
wards Mr. Pearse met the man 
again and learned that he had kept 
his bargain. 


78. Sympathy—Daring 

Some rude children in Madagascar 
were one day calling out, “A leper! 
A leper!” to a poor woman who had 
lost all her fingers and toes by the 
dread disease. A missionary lady 
who was nearby put her hand on the 
woman’s shoulder and asked her to 
sit down on the grass by her. The 
woman fell sobbing, overcome by 
emotion, and cried out, “A human 
hand has touched me.” The mission- 
ary says that in that moment it 
flashed across her mind why it is 
recorded in the Gospels that Jesus 
touched the leper. That is just what 
others would not do. It was the 
touch of sympathy as well as of 
healing power. 


79. Weak—Helping the 
A nurseryman about to plant a 


number of young saplings, some 
straight and some crooked, thus rea- 
sioned with himself—“These straight 
saplings will no doubt grow up to be 
fine trees without much attention on 
my part; but I will see if, by proper 
training, I cannot make something 
of the crooked ones also. There will 
be more trouble with them, no doubt, 
than with the others; but for that 
very reason I shall be the better 
satisfied should I succeed.”—New 
Cyclopedia of Anecdotes. 


CHILDREN 


80. Character—Beauty of 


A good many years ago there was 
born in Russia a boy who thought 
himself so ugly that he felt there was 
no happiness for such as he. He had 
a wide nose, thick lips, small grey 
eyes, and big hands and feet. When 
he grew to be a man he became a 
famous writer. In one of his books 
he tells that he was so anxious about 
this ugliness that he besought God 
to work a miracle, to turn him into 
a beauty. If God would do this the 
boy promised that he would give 
God all he then possessed, or would 
possess in the future. 

That Russian boy was the great 
Count Tolstoi. Happily as he grew 
older he discovered that the beauty 
for which he sighed was not the 
only beauty, nor the best beauty. He 
learned to value more the beauty of 
a character strong and great and 
good in God’s sight—James Has- 
tings. 


81. Child Leading 


The other night a friend of mine 
witnessed a drunken brawl. There 
was a man there who continued in 
the brawl, and his wife came out of 
the crowd and said: “I will go and 
fetch baby to him; that will bring 
him out of it if anything will.” Ah! 
she was a philosopher, though she 
didn’t know it. She wanted to get 


60 CHILDREN 


to the deepest part of the man’s 
nature. She did not talk of police- 
man and prison; she wanted to bring 
the innocent one before him, as much 
as to say, “Will you make a thorny 
couch for this little one to lie upon? 
Will you forge a dagger with which 
to pierce this little one’s heart?” 

The gospel comes to make us hate 
sin by showing that another suffered 
and died for us.—C. Vince. 


82. Child—Saving a 


In a remote district of Wales a 
baby boy lay dangerously ill. The 
widowed mother walked five miles in 
the night through drenching rain to 
get a doctor. The doctor hesitated 
about making the unpleasant trip. 
Would it pay? he questioned. He 
would receive no money for his 
services, and, besides, if the child’s 
life were saved, he would no doubt 
become only a poor laborer. But 
love for humanity and professional 
duty conquered, and the little life 
was saved. Years after, when this 
same child—Lloyd George—became 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, the 
doctor said, “I never dreamed that 
in saving the life of that child on 
the farm hearth I was saving the 
life of the leader of England.” This 
is a good Children’s Day lesson. In 
working for the litle ones we never 
know how much we are doing.—H. 


83. Children—Claims of 


Socrates once said, “Could I 
climb to the highest place in Athens, 
I would lift my voice and proclaim 
—Fellow-citizens, why do ye turn 
and scrape every stone to gather 
wealth, and take so little care of 
your children to whom one day you 
must relinquish it all?”’—Family 
Circle. 


84. Child—Finding 

From the Contagious Disease Hos- 
pital of New York City last October, 
according to the New York Times, 


- about two 


came a telephone message to a 
mother on Madison Avenue. “Did 
you leave an _ eighteen-months-old 
baby here, stricken with paralysis, 
months ago?” she was 
asked. 

“Ves,” said the mother. 

“Ts it here yet?” came over the 
phone. 

“Our baby died two weeks ago 
and was buried from the hospital. 
Why do you ask?” said the mother, 
bursting into tears. 

“Because some mistake has been 
made,” came the answer over the 
wire. “Can you come to the hospital 
at once?” 

It didn’t take that mother long to 
reach the hospital. A nurse brought 
her child to her, living and well; and 
there was an indescribably joyous 
meeting as the little one’s arms clung 
round the mother’s neck. 

A mistake had been made as to 
the identity of a baby who had 
indeed died two weeks before; this 
mother had been notified of the 
death of her child; and on account 
of the dread disease the little body 
had only been seen at a distance by 
the supposed parents. Easter must 
have a new meaning in that house. 
The newspaper headlines describing 
this glad restoration read: “Finds a 
Child Alive She Thought Buried.”— 
C. G. Trumbull. 


85. Children—Heathen 


“Is your baby better?” one mother 
asks of another whose little one has 
been sick. “We have thrown it 
away,” is the stolid answer. “Well, 
it is gone, and you cannot get it 
back. Just forget it as soon as you 
can. There is nothing else to do.” 
Such is the hopeless outlook and 
such the comfort which heathenism 
brings to aching hearts in China 
when death invades the home and the 
little ones are taken. But oh, the 
change that comes when our blessed 
gospel enters those hearts and 
homes! 


CHILDREN 61 


86. Children—Jesus and 


Mr. Robert E. Speer has said 
that he would be almost willing to 
stake the entire defense of Christian- 
ity on what it has done for the child 
as compared with the attitude of 
non-Christian religions toward chil- 
dren. Infanticide, especially of girls, 
is common in almost every non- 
Christian country. In India the pre- 
dominance of boys over girls bears 
abundant testimony to the practice 
of killing girl babies. 

In one of the villages of China, a 
missionary tells of his having found, 
on his first arrival, a pond which was 
called “Babies’ Pond.” Into this 
pond were cast the children that 
heartless parents wished to get rid 
of, and in those early days of mis- 
sionary work, this missionary states, 
the bodies of several babies could 
always be seen floating on the slimy 
green surface of the pond. The 
entrance of the Gospel into this 
place, has not only done away with 
this practice, but has made sacred 
the life of the child—The Bible 
Teacher. 


87. Children—Lost 


The following tender appeal ap- 
peared in the pages of the Chicago 
Tribune recently: 


“Dear Helen—We miss you so and 
want you so. It doesn’t matter 
where you have been or what has 
happened, our arms and hearts are 
waiting for you. Won’t you come 
back to us, or let us know where we 
can find you? Don’t feel afraid of 
us. We are ready to forgive every- 
thing. Only come. 

“Your wondering, 
family.” 


heart-aching 


Your Saviour, my lost friend, has 
been making an appeal even more 
tender than that for you. Only 
come! He will receive you. 


88. Conversation of Children 
Many persons are afraid of chil- 


dren’s conversion. As though the 
conversion of a child that is free 
from the cares and burdens which 
you carry like a hump on your back 
was not more likely to be genuine 
than yours, if you give it fair play! 
When little children think they are 
converted people say, “What, con- 
verted so small? Christians so 
young? Let us be careful. We will 
not take them into the church yet. 
It will not do to bring them along 
too fast. If they hold out we will 
receive them.” 

Suppose, a child being born, the 
doctor should say, “My dear father 
and mother, it is uncertain whether 
or not this child will live, and I 
advise you to put it out on the front 
doorsteps and leave it over night. 
If it lives in the open air in January 
you may be sure that it has a good 
constitution, and you will be war- 
ranted in bringing it in and taking 
care of it.’ Thus you do a devilish 
work, and hope that God will do a 
good one. Those periods when chil- 
dren feel drawings towards higher 
things, and hear the call of God, are 
just the periods when you should 
take care of them. It is not hard 
to make a tree grow right if you 
begin to train it when it is young, 
but to make a tree grow right after 
you have allowed it to grow wrong 
till it is old is not an easy matter.— 
H. W. Beecher. 


89. Defender of the Defenseless 


I read a story the other day of a 
boy who had a strange dream. He 
dreamt that the richest man in his 
little town came to him, that he was 
tired of his money and his houses 
and his lands, and he wanted the 
boy to take his place. Then the old 
doctor arrived, and he said that he 
was weary of going up and down the 
streets healing sick folk, and would 
the boy get ready to become the town 
physician. Then the judge came, 
and he also was tired of his work. 
He wanted someone to try his cases 


62 CHILDREN 


and fill his place on the bench. Then 
the town drunkard, the shame of the 
village and its saddest sight, came 
on the scene, and he told the lad that 
he could not live much longer and he 
wanted somebody to be ready to 
take his place in the bars and on the 
streets. 

That was a strange dream, but it 
was in a sense a true one. Boys and 
girls, you are all getting ready to fill 
some place in the world. What are 
you getting ready for? Are you 
getting ready to throw away your 
life like that poor village drunkard? 
Or are you getting ready to be like 
Abraham, a defender of the defense- 
less, and a friend of God?—James 
Hastings. 


g0. Enthusiasm Killed 


Every American boy and girl likes 
a job but resents a task. Perhaps 
you did not know that there is a 
difference. Professor Puffer tells a 
story of a boy who burst into the 
diningroom where his father sat at 
breakfast and said, “What can I do 
to help you to-day, dad? I want to 
do something.” 

“Well, son,” was the reply, “do 
you see that pile of sand out there? 
You can wheel it up to the other end 
of the garden.” 

“All right,” said the boy, and with 
a whistle on his lips he went to 
work. But the job did not last long 
and he was soon back. 

“Job’s done, dad, what can I do 
to help you, now?” Now the father, 
like a great many other American 
fathers, thought only of keeping the 
boy employed. 

“Oh, just wheel it back where you 
found it,’ was his reply. 

The boy thrust his hands into his 
pockets and walked from the room. 
His whistling had ceased. He found 
that his father had given him not a 
job, but a task.—Illinois State Y. M. 
C. A. Notes. 


long ago in Ireland. 


91. God’s Instrument 


An English drummer boy was 
made prisoner during a_ rebellion 
His captors 
wished him to play a tune on his 
drum. He refused. “We will kill 
you if you don’t,” said one. “I don’t 
care,” answered the boy. “Well, if 
you don’t play a tune on it, I will,” 
said one of the soldiers, stretching 
out his hand to take the drum. In 
an instant, with an angry flash of his 
eye, the lad leaped through the drum- 
head, breaking it to pieces, shouting, 
“The king’s drum shall never be 
beat by rebels”—and fell pierced 
through with the bayonets of the 
enemy. 

O youths, act the brave part of this 
little soldier. Never let your powers 
or your bodies, which are God’s, be 
used in the service of Satan. 


92. Honor—Sense of 


They tell of Nelson, when he was 
a boy, that he and his brother were 
returning to school after the Christ- 
mas holidays. Their home was 
within riding distance of the school 
and it was their custom to return on 
horseback. Now it happened this 
Christmas that there had been a 
heavy snow-storm. And by and by 
the boys determined to turn back © 
rather than go on. Nelson’s brother 
William was not fond of school, so 
he welcomed any excuse. But when 
the boys got home and told their 
story, all their father said was, “If 
that be the case you certainly shall 
not go; but make another attempt 
and I shall leave it to your honor. 
If the road is dangerous you may 
return; but, remember boys, I leave 
it to your honor.” 

So the two boys started out again. 
They found the snow really deep, 
and once more William was for 
turning back, but Horatio said, “No, 
we must go on. We can manage it 
if we try harder. Father left it to 
our honor.”—James Hastings. 


CHILDREN 63 


93. Influence—Unconscious 


Josiah Wedgwood, the famous 
potter, invented the beautiful Wedg- 
wood ware that is so much admired. 
Josiah lived about a hundred years 
ago, and besides being a celebrated 
potter he was a thoroughly good man 
and a splendid Christian. 

One day a nobleman came to the 
factory, and Mr. Wedgwood asked 
a lad of fifteen to take the visitor 
over the works and explain how 
things were done. 

Now the nobleman was smart and 
clever, but he was not a God-fear- 
ing man. As he went on his round 
he began to use bad language and to 
make light of sacred things. At first 
the boy was shocked, but by and by 
he began to laugh at the smart 
remarks. Mr. Wedgwood, who was 
following, was hotly indignant. 

When the nobleman returned to 
the office the potter picked out a 
vase of rare workmanship and began 
to point out its beauties and to de- 
scribe how carefully and wonderfully 
it had been made. The nobleman 
was charmed and held out his hand 
to receive the vase, but as Mr. 
Wedgwood was handing it to the 
visitor he let it fall, and it lay shat- 
tered in a hundred pieces. 

The nobleman was very angry. 
He reproached his host for having 
destroyed the beautiful vase which 
he had so much wished to possess, 
but the potter replied, “My lord, 
there are things more precious than 
any vase—things which once ruined 
can never be restored. I can make 
another vase like this for you, but 
you can never give back to the boy 
who has just left us the pure heart 
which you have destroyed by making 
light of sacred things, and by using 
impure words.”—James Hastings. 


94. Law—Evading 

Some Christians have the same 
idea of these commandments as a 
little boy who was playing with his 


sister. A most unpleasant woman 
who lived near had been finding fault 
with them, and the boy said, “I just 
hate her.” His little sister, greatly 
shocked, said, “Oh, no! The Bible 
says we must love every one.” “Oh, 
well,” he remarked, “old Mrs. Blank 
wasn’t born when that was written.” 
Isn’t that the idea some of us have 
about the requirements of God’s 
Word? 


95. Moral Rights 


A man’s success in life does not 
depend upon his stature, but upon 
his spirit. The best man, after all, 
is the biggest man. It is moral 
stamina which gives distinction to 
humanity, whether it be young or — 
old, high or low in the social scale. 
A small office boy named Robert was 
chaffed about his size until he could 
stand it no longer. “Small as I am,” 
said he, “I can do something no man 
can do in this office.” “What is 
that, Bobby?” they all shouted. 
“Keep from swearing,” Robert re- 
plied. The office boy has his moral 
rights in modern industrialism, and 
his business superiors should remem- 
ber that God, their Master and his, 
will hold them to strict account for 
the example they set before the boy 
and the attitude they assume toward 
his moral training. 


96. Obedience—Value of 


Years ago a famous children’s 
specialist said to me: “When it 
comes to a serious illness, the child 
who has been taught to obey stands 
four times the chance of recovery 
that the spoiled and undisciplined 
child does.” Those words made a 
lasting impression upon me. Up to 
that time I had been taught that one 
of the Ten Commandments was for 
children to obey their parents. 
Never had it entered my mind that 
a question of obedience might mean 
the saving or losing of a child’s 
life—From the Sunday School 
Chronicle. J. A. Clark. 


64 CHILDREN 


97- Sacrifice—Joy of 

He was only a mite of a boy, dirty 
and ragged; and he had stopped for 
a little while in one of the city’s 
free playgrounds to watch a game of 
ball between boys of his own and 
a rival neighborhood. ‘Tatters and 
grime were painfully in evidence on 
every side; but the little fellow at- 
tracted the attention of a group of 
visitors, and one of them, reaching 
over the child’s shoulder as he sat 
on the ground, gave him a luscious 
golden pear. The boy’s” eyes 
sparkled; but the eyes were the only 
thanks as he looked back to see from 
whence the gift had come and then 
Aurned his face away too shy or too 
much astonished to speak. 

But from that time on his atten- 
tion was divided between the game 
and his new treasure. He patted the 
pear; he looked at it; and, at last, 
as if to assure himself that it was as 
delicious as it appeared, he lifted it 
to his lips and cautiously bit out a 
tiny piece near the stem. Then, with 
a long sigh of satisfaction and assur- 
ance, he tucked the prize safely 
inside his blouse. 

“Why don’t you eat it, Tony?” de- 
manded a watchful acquaintance. 

“Rat it? All meself? Ain’t I 
savin’ it for mother?” 

The tone, with its mingling of re- 
sentment and loyalty, made further 
speech unnecessary. Whatever Tony 
lacked—and it seemed to be nearly 
everything—he had learned human- 
ity’s loftiest lesson. He had another 
dearer than self, and knew the joy 
of sacrifice. 


98. Sainthood Deferred 


“Too many people,” said the 
clergyman, “regard their religion as 
did the little boy in the jam closet. 
His mother pounced on him sud- 
denly. He stood on tiptoe, lading 
jam with both hands from the jam 
pot to his mouth. 

“‘Oh, Jacky!’ his mother cried, 


‘And only last night you prayed to 
be made a saint!’ 

“His face, an expressionless mask 
of jam, turned toward her. ‘Yes, 


but not till after I’m dead,’ he ex- 


plained.” 


99. Seeker—Persistent 


It was in the dead of night, and 
a cold night at that. Mr. Smith was 
away, and Peterson Smith, aged six, 
was getting over the measles. 

“Mother, may I have a drink of 
real cold water?” he asked, waking 
Mrs. Smith from a_ refreshing 
slumber. 

“Turn right over and go to sleep!” 
commanded Mrs. Smith. “You are 
a naughty boy to wake mother up 
when she put a pitcher of water on 
your table the very last thing before 
you went to bed.” 

Ten minutes later the small voice 
piped up again: ‘Mother, I want a 
drink of water.” 

“Peterson,” said Mrs. Smith 
sternly, “if you say that again I 
shall get up and spank you!” 

There was five minutes’ silence, 
and again Peterson spoke: 

“Mother,” he said, cheerfully, 
“when you get up to spank me, may 
I have a drink of water ?”—Youth’s 
Companion. 


roo. Thankfulness 


There was once a good king in 
Spain called Alfonso XII. Now it 
came to the ears of this king that 
the pages at his court forgot to ask 
God’s blessing on their daily meals, 
and he determined to rebuke them. 
He invited them to a banquet which 
they all attended. The table was 
spread with every kind of good 
thing, and the boys ate with evident 
relish; but not one of them remem- 
bered to ask God’s blessing on the 
food. 

During the feast a beggar entered, 
dirty and ill-clad. He seated himself 
at the royal table and ate and drank 


CHRIST 65 


to his heart’s content. At first the 
pages were amazed, and they ex- 
pected that the king would order 
him away. But Alfonso said never 
a word. 

When the beggar had finished he 
rose and left without a word of 
thanks. Then the boys could keep 
silence no longer. “What a despic- 
ably mean fellow!” they cried. But 
the king silenced them, and in clear, 
calm tones he said, “Boys, bolder 
and more audacious than this beggar 
have you all been. Every day you 
sit down to a table supplied by the 
bounty of your Heavenly Father, yet 
you ask not His blessing nor express 
to Him your gratitude.”—James 
Hastings. 


ror. Tribulation—Joyful in 


In Lausanne, Switzerland, Adele 
Kamm was born on October 1, 1885. 
When she was eight years old she 
had her first severe attack of illness. 
For a time the physicians thought 
they could restore her to health. 
After a few years, however, they 
realized that all they could do was 
to prolong her life. She was suffer- 
ing from tuberculosis, and the end 
seemed near. 

The invalid heard the truth, but 
she did not allow herself to give 
way to gloom. “I will smile when I 
feel ill,’ she resolved. “Her life 
was gracious and radiant,’ wrote 
Paul Seippel in telling her story in 
“Huguenot Saint of the Twentieth 
Century,” a book which passed 
through three editions in French 
before it was translated into Eng- 
lish. For a time she was in a hospi- 
tal where she found joy in min- 
istering to other patients. ears 
When she was taken to her own 
home she missed what she called 
“the sacred joy of helping them.” 
... She wrote a booklet called “Joy- 
ful in Tribulation.” It rang with a 
message of joy from beginning to 
end. Before long her joy be- 
came even greater, because, with 


another invalid, she conceived the 
idea of the “Society of Ladybirds.” 


zo2, Truth—Searching for 


One day little Maxine Mudgett 
was playing in the barnyard of her 
father’s ranch near Mariposa, Cali- 
fornia. There had been a big rain 
and the water had come surging 
through the barnyard, washing away 
considerable soil and bringing to 
light a number of new stones that 
she had not seen before. One of 
them attracted her childish attention 
and interest and she carried it with 
her to the house. Her father found 
it to be a nugget of solid gold weigh- 
ing twenty-eight ounces and worth 
five hundred and ten dollars. Ten 
thousand children in ten thousand 
barnyards in a score of other states 
might have searched a day or a 
year and not found a single nugget, 
but this little girl was hunting in 
a nugget country. Many people 
search for peace and truth about 
God and man and never find it. But 
people who search in the childlike 
spirit in that greatest of all gold 
fields, the Bible, will not fail to find 
golden nuggets of priceless value. 


CHRIST 


103. Christ—A biding 

The beautiful hymn, “Abide, With 
Me,” was written in 1847, by Rev. 
Henry Francis Lyte, when he was in 
the final stage of disease. His life 
was one of disappointments. His 
ambitions were crossed, his affec- 
tions were betrayed, his health failed. 
Though of gentle birth and high 
scholarship, he was placed in what 
he himself called “a dreary Irish 
curacy.” But he was not permitted 
to linger even there; failing health 
compelled him to relinquish his 
charge in an attempt to prolong 
his life in the soothing climate of 
Italy. Before leaving for the South 
he gathered his strength for the ad- 


66 

ministration of a last communion 
servvice, although, as he _ wrote, 
“scarcely able to crawl.” Then he 


gave his farewell to the members of 
his flock and retired to his chamber. 
As the evening of the Sabbath day 
gathered its shadows, he came forth 
wearily, and laid in the hand of one 
of his relatives this hymn of eight 
stanzas. Thus was this prayer in 
hymn born in an hour of deepest 


darkness and bitterest disappoint- 
ment. 
104. Christ a Magnet 


Recently a Western iron manufac- 
turing concern in experimenting with 
powerful magnetic cranes found that 
one of the magnets on being passed 
over the ground on their premises, 
recovered thousands of pounds of 
iron that had lain buried for years. 
Huge pieces of iron fairly leapt 
through their earthen mantle to meet 
the mighty magnetic force and not a 
few mysterious disappearances of 
parts reported “missing” were ac- 
counted for on this day of reckon- 
ing. 

What a picture of the power of 
the Spirit of God when he moves 
over a community. Often the Spirit 
might pass over the earth to-day 
and attract with his irresistible 
power the “steeled hearts” of those 
sunken in the sins and cares of 
worldliness. “If I be lifted up from 
the earth I will draw all men unto 


me.” 


105. Christ—Condescension of 


A Colorado mine-owner erected 
houses for his employees, and built 
a school for the exclusive use of 
their children. One day a ranchman 
in the neighborhood visited the mine- 
owner, and told him that he had five 
children who were growing up in 
ignorance because there was not a 
good school within reach of his 
ranch. He begged for permission 
to send them to the mining school, 
and offered to pay liberally for the 


CHRIST 


privilege. The mine-owner said, 
however, that it could not be done. 
He had been obliged to make it an 
inflexible rule that no _ children 
should be admitted but those of the 
employees in the mine. The ranch- 
man pleaded, but without avail. 
Finally, he offered himself as a 
miner, and being a strong, stalwart 
man, he was accepted. He is now 
working in the mine for daily wages, 
in order that his children may be 
eligible for admission to the school. 
He doubtless finds the work hard 
and uncongenial, but his children 
will profit by his doing it, and that 
fact is a consolation to him. We 
admire a love like this that leads to 
self-sacrifice, but we too often for- 
get that the whole human race owes 
its opportunity of attaining eternal 
life to such love. 


106. Christ—Explaining 


We call Christmas the birthday of 
Jesus Christ, but who he was, what 
he was in the depths of his nature, 
the world, after two thousand years 
of investigation and reflection, has 
not been able to tell exhaustively. 


If any one shall say that it is too — 


much of a mystery to believe in such 
a birth, such a life, such a resurrec- 


tion, a sufficient reply is that the uni- — 
verse is crowded with mystery. We 


cannot explain creation, or existence, 
or matter, or mind, or life—nothing, 


indeed, ultimately. We cannot prove © 


by reason who we are ourselves, 
what we are, whence we came, 
whither we go. What is the mean- 
ing of the worlds and the totality 
of things, who can say? Even the 
flower in the crannied wall defies 
all of our systems of thought. 

We cannot understand Jesus fully 


and fundamentally, nor explain him. 


as we explain others. He does not 
ask us to do it nor make our salva- 
tion depend on our doing it. Christ- 
mas is not time for losing ourselves 
in the depths of an abstract and 
metaphysical theology. Jesus says 


ater = 


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CHRIST 67 


not “Explain Me,” but “Follow Me.” 
His religion is conduct—a practical 
program and not merely philo- 
sophical disquisition. Its path into 
truth is by way of obedience. He 
that is willing to do the will of God 
and honestly makes the attempt shail 
somehow comprehend the teaching of 
the Prophet of Nazareth—Western 
Christian Advocate. 


zo7. Christ’s Friends 


A Russian soldier, one very cold, 
piercing night, kept duty between 
one sentry-box and another. A poor 
working man, moved with pity, took 
off his coat and lent it to the soldier 
to keep him warm, adding that he 
should soon reach home, while the 
soldier would be exposed out of 
doors for the night. The cold was 
so intense that the soldier was found 
dead in the morning. Some time 
afterwards the poor man was laid 
on his deathbed, and in a dream 
saw Jesus appear to him. ‘You have 
got my coat on,” said the man. 
“Yes; it is the coat you lent to me 
that cold night when I was on duty, 
and you passed by. I was naked, and 
you clothed me.”—Christian Age. 


z08. Christ—Holding Up 


A young lieutenant, fresh from a 
Christian home, arrived at his camp 


in France to find that the officers’ 


mess was not conducted in a seemly 
way. The men not only talked in an 
objectionable way but they had put 
on the walls of the mess room pic- 
tures that were far from decorous. 

The lieutenant was young and un- 
familiar with army life; though his 
whole soul revolted, he hardly dared 
to protest. Then one afternoon, 
when he was going through his lug- 
gage, he found in his valise a small 
but beautiful picture. It was the 
head of Christ by that master of 
masters, Leonardo da Vinci, a copy 
of that head which he had sketched 
again and again before painting it 
on the canvas of his great picture, 


the Last Supper. It gave the young 
man his inspiration. Creeping into 
the mess room late that night, he 
hung the picture on the wall. There 
it was, a point of goodness and 
beauty and inspiration amid the 
tawdry, evil stuff that hung there. 

The young officer was not the 
only one to creep into that room 
when no one was watching. Within 
twenty-four hours, picture after pic- 
ture mysteriously disappeared from 
those walls until only the picture of 
the head of the Saviour remained. 
Before those pure and tender eyes 
sin fled away. The simple uplifting 
of Christ was enough to drive evil 
away in headlong flight. Evil must 
be overcome by  good.—Youth’s 
Companion. 


109. Christ—Image of 


Scipio Africanus had a son, who 
had nothing of the father but the 
name—a coward—a dissolute, sorry 
rake—the son of one of the great- 
est generals in the world! This son 
wore a ring upon his finger, wherein 
was his father’s picture. His life 
and character were so opposite to 
those of his father, and so unworthy, 
that, by an act of the senate, he was 
commanded to forbear wearing that 
ring. They judged it unfit that he 
should have the honor to wear the 
picture of his father, who would not 
himself bear the resemblance of his 
father’s excellency. The divine com- 
mand is, “Let every one that nameth 
the name of Christ depart from 
iniquity.”—Whitecross. 


rio. Christ in the Heart 

A soldier of Napoleon’s great 
army was wounded one day by a 
bullet which entered his breast above 
his heart; he was carried to the 


“rear, and the surgeon was probing 


the wound with his knife, when at 
length the guardsman exclaimed, 
“An inch deeper, and you will find 
the emperor.” And the Christian 
soldier, even when most sorely 


68 


pressed and pierced by his foes, is 
conscious that were his heart laid 
open by their wounds, it would only 
discover the name of his great Cap- 
tain deeply engraven there—lInde- 
pendent. 


zzz. Christ-Like 


When the funeral procession of 
Lord Shaftesbury, the Christian 
philanthropist, reached Trafalgar 
Square forty thousand factory 
hands, seamstresses, flower girls, 
and laborers from the East End 
were found there assembled; then 
came a mile through such crowds as 
London has scarcely ever seen, and 
on either side of the street delega- 
tions from Sunday schools, shelters, 
the homes and the training schools, 
supported almost wholly by this 
great philanthropist. 

When the hearse approached the 
costermongers, a leader lifted a 
banner with these words, “I was a 
stranger, and ye took me in.” 

The boys from the ragged schools 
lifted this banner: “I was sick, and 
ye visited me.” 

Upon a silken flag the leader of 
the working girls had _ inscribed 
these words: “Inasmuch as ye did it 
unto one of the least of these, ye did 
it unto me.” 

This was a beautiful tribute of 
gratitude to one who was worthy. 
And the whole nobility and goodness 
of Shaftesbury’s life grew out of his 
desire to be like Christ, to whom he 
ever paid the homage of gratitude 
for ali that he was, or did. 


zzz. Christ Likeness 

The caterpillar of a moth, we are 
told, becomes like the color of the 
leaf upon which it feeds. Its color 
in this way indicates the character 
of the food it eats. If we would be 
like Christ we must feed on Him. 
Our moral character will always 
manifest the color of our mental 
food. Christ lived upon the Word 
of God His Father, and so main- 


CHRIST 


tained a life that was like God. If 
we would be His disciples we must 
come after Him in this matter. Man 
shall not live by bread alone, but by 
every word that proceedeth out of 
the mouth of God. “Eat, O friends” 
(S. of S. 5: 1).—James Smith. 


zz3. Christ Our Plea 


Some years ago, during the war, 
there was a judge who felt great 
interest in the welfare of the suffer- 
ing soldiers. He had a dear boy of 
his own in the army, and this made 
him feel the greatest sympathy for 
the soldiers. But one time he was 
very busy in studying out an impor- 
tant law case that was coming before 
him to be tried. And while he was 
thus engaged, he made up his mind 
not to be interrupted by any persons 
begging for help. One day, during 
this time, a poor soldier came into 
his office. His clothes were torn 
and thin, and his face showed that 
he was suffering much from sick- 
ness. The judge went on with his 
work, pretending not to notice him. 
The soldier was fumbling in his 
pockets for a good while, and then, 
seeing that he was not welcome, he 
said in a disappointed tone, “I did 
have a letter for you, sir.” The 
judge made no answer. Presently 
the soldier’s thin trembling hand 
pushed a little note along the desk. 
The judge looked up, and was going 
to say, “I am too busy now to at- 
tend to anything of this kind.” But 
just then his eye fell on the note, 
and he saw the handwriting of his 
own son. In a moment he picked it 
up and read thus—“Dear Father, 
The bearer of this note is one of our 
brave soldier boys. He has been dis- 
missed from the hospital, and is 
going home to die. Please help him, 
in any way you can, for Charlie’s — 
sake.” What a change those few 
lines made in that father’s feelings 
towards the poor soldier! “Come 
into the house, my friend,” he said. 
“You are welcome to anything we 











CHRIST 69 


have.” Then a good meal was pre- 
pared for him. He was put to sleep 
in Charlie’s bed. He was dressed in 
some of Charlie’s clothes, and money 
was given him to take him home in 
comfort. All this was done “for 
Charlie’s sake.” And so when we 
ask anything for Jesus’ sake, God, 
our heavenly Father, will surely give 
it to us, if it be well for us to have 
it—Richard Newton. 


114. Christ—Power in 


The dweller in Toronto wakes up 
in the morning and wants a light to 
dress by. He presses a little switch 
and his whole room is light as day, 
and it is Niagara which does it for 
him. He goes to his bath-room and 
wants to heat some water for wash- 
ing or sh ving; he presses another 
switch, and once again Niagara sup- 
plies his need. He wants to talk 
to someone in Montreal or Chicago, 
cities hundreds of miles away; he 
rings a bell, and Niagara carries his 
messages for him. He boards one 
of the trolley cars, and Niagara car- 
ries him quickly and safely to his 
ofice door. Niagara is an almost 
exhaustless source of power. There 
is another source of power we need 
if we are to get through life 
worthily, and that is moral power, 
and we have a Niagara of that kind 
of power in Christ. Look at what 
Paul says: “I can. do all things 
through Christ.”—J. D. Jones. 


115. Christ—Spirit of 

Christian lands are blessed with 
countless lives that show the Christ- 
mas spirit every day of the year. 
Let me tell you of one. In a coun- 
try postoffice the postmistress was so 
ill she did not know when Christ- 
mas came and went. After she was 
better, she felt bitter against Provi- 
dence and gloomy towards every- 
body. But the day she returned to 
her humble duties, it occurred to her, 
Why not make to-day my lost Christ- 
mas? So she put the spirit of 


Christ into the whole day. She 
smiled at everyone that came or 
went. They wondered; but they 
were pleased and made happier. 

After the office was closed for the 
day, this Christmas impersonator 
gathered together a lot of small com- 
forts and took them out as presents 
to the poor of the neighborhood. 
Then she carried delicacies to the 
sick, At the close of the day she was 
the happiest woman in the com- 
munity; and she determined to live 
each day as if it were Christmas. 

The spirit of Christ with us and in 
us makes every day a feast day. We 
daily enjoy his bounty; and we may 
daily enjoy his presence. “Lo, I 
am with you always.” 


116. Christ the Door 


There be some who teach us that 
the earthly Church, composed of hu- 
man beings, surrounded with human 
devices, human ordinances, human 
governments, human systems, is the 
Door. Never! Never! Christ is 
the Door. No organization can take 
his place. None can represent him, 
even. We may make use of the 
Church as we make use of a hotel 
when we are traveling home to see 
father and mother; but no landlord 
of any hotel shall tell me that he is 
my father, or my mother, or that his 
hotel is my home. Churches are 
God’s hotels, where travelers put up 
for the night, as it were, and then 
speed on their way home. Christ is 
the one Door. All that pass through 
that Door are of the one church, and 
belong to him.—H. W. Beecher. 


117. Christ the Light 

There is a little church on a 
lonely hillside where they have 
neither gas nor lamps, and yet on 
darkest nights they hold Divine serv- 
ice. Each worshiper, coming a great 
distance from village or moorland 
home, brings with him a taper, and 
lights it from the one supplied and 
carried by the minister of the little 


70 CHRIST 


church. The building is thronged, 
and the scene is said to be “most 
brilliant.” Let each one of our lives 
be but a little taper—lighted from 
the life of Christ, and carrying his 
flame—and we shall help to fill this 
great temple of human need and hu- 
man sin with the light of the knowl- 
edge of the glory of God. The life 
of Christ will be the new sunshine 
of the world. “Men shall be blessed 
in him; all nations shall call him 
blessed ;” universal man shall re- 
ceive “God’s Living Light.” 


z18. Christ—The Unchanging 


Humboldt, the famous naturalist 
and traveler, described his experience 
in a violent earthquake and attend- 
ant tornado. He was bewildered and 
terrified when he saw the waters re- 
ceding from the bay; his vessel 
heavily listing till it toppled over on 
the beach; trees of the forest up- 
rooted; huge rocks rent from the 
cliffs; the mountains rocking and 
the air dark with vapor and dust. 
Then looking up, he beheld the sun 
majestic, unmoved, unchanged, every 
moment becoming more distinct as 
the dust settled and the gloom was 
dispelled. 

Life in America and in the whole 
world was shaken and bewildered by 
the political, moral and religious 
overthrow and upheaval of the 
World War. It was inevitable that 
such a cataclysm should profoundly 
affect all the relationships of life. 
These changes focused attention 
upon the temporal and the material 
and loosened the grip upon the 
moral and the spiritual. That multi- 
tudes have become unsettled in the 
faith is a fact as obvious as it is 
painful. 

There is now, however, solid 
ground for optimism in the growing 
consciousness of an_ increasing 
number that in the midst of the over- 
throw and upheaval there is some- 
thing firm, unchanging, unmoved. 
They have taken the upward look 


'IT9. 


and have discovered amidst the dust 
and din, the darkness and confusion, 
the Light of the World. Costly as 
this experiment has been for the 
world, there will be priceless com- 
pensation if the futility of trust in 
human expediency eventually cen- 
ters thought upon the basic and 
eternal in Christ Jesus our Lord. 


Christ—Union With 


When I was a little child I often 
stood near a forge and watched the 
blacksmith at work, admiring the 
strength and skill of the wonder- 
working man. He was wont to treat 
me kindly and bear with me pa- 
tiently, although I sometimes stood 
in his way. At one time he would 
benevolently answer my _ childish 
questions, and at another, instead of 
answering, would continue to handle 
his tools with his strong, bare arms, 
throwing glances of tenderness to- 
wards me from time to time out of 
his deep, intelligent eyes, only all 
in silence. When two pieces of iron, 
placed in the fire in order to be 
welded together, became red, I 
thought and said he should take 
them out and join them; but he left 
them lying still in the fire, without 
saying a word. They grew redder 
and hotter as they threw out angry 
sparks; now, thought I, he should 
certainly lay them together and 
strike; but the skillful man left 
them still lying in the fire, and mean-. 
time fanned it into a fiercer glow. 
Not till they were white and bend- 
ing with their own weight when 
lifted, like lilies on their stalks— 
not till they were at the point of be- 
coming liquid did he lay the two 
pieces alongside of each other, and 
by a few gentle strokes weld them 
into one. Had he laid them to- 
gether sooner, however vigorously he 
had beaten they would have fallen 
asunder in his hands. The Lord 
knows, as we know not, what prep- 
aration we need in order that we 
may be brought into union with 


CHRIST 71 


Himself. He refuses, delays, dis- 
appoints—all in wise love, that He 
may bring the seeker’s heart up to 
such a glow of desire as will suffice 
to unite it permanently with His 
own.—Arnot. 


120. Christ—Upheld by 


As one of our American liners 
was crossing the Atlantic, during a 
terrific gale, the cry was raised— 
“Man overboard!” It was impos- 
sible to put up the helm of the ship 
on account of the violence of the 
hurricane; but one of the crew 
instantly seized a rope having a 
loop at the end, and threw it over 
the stern, crying out, “Lay hold for 
your life!” Passengers and crew 
had crowded together at the stern, 
but the rolling waves and blinding 
spray prevented them from seeing 
the drowning sailor. The captain 
cried out, “Have you got hold of the 
rope?” and the reply came, “No, 
but the rope has got hold of me.” 
The sailor when he caught the rope 
had passed the loop over his 
shoulders and under his arms, and 
though too fatigued to hold on to 
the rope, the loop kept him from 
sinking.—W. R. Bradlaugh. 


z21. Christ Waiting 

A man once stopped a preacher in 
a street of London, and said, “I 
once heard you preach in Paris, and 
you said something which has, 
through God, been the means of my 
conversion.” “What was that?” said 
the preacher. “It was that the latch 
was on our side of the door. I had 
always thought that God: was a hard 
God, and that we must do some- 
thing to propitiate him. It was a 
new thought to me that Christ was 
waiting for me to open to him.”— 
The Standard. 


122. Christ—Waiting for 

Rey. J. S. Harrison told this story 
in an address in Spurgeon’s Taber- 
nacle in London: 


When the Franco-Prussian War 
broke out a young lieutenant in the 
Prussian army told the girl he loved 
how he would return and take her 
to the home he would provide for 
her. When the war was over the 
victorious troops returned to Berlin, 
and entered the city in triumphant 
procession. Julie stood by the gate 
waiting for her lover, who was 
sleeping under the sod in a foreign 
land. But she said, “He must come, 
he said he would!” and for forty 
years, day after day, in all weathers, 
she was at that corner. Her brain 
was turned, and one day she fell 
ill at the spot and was taken to a 
hospital, where she died. “But thank 
God,” exclaimed the speaker, “Jesus 
is providing a home for us and will 
not disappoint.” 


123. Cross Preached by Tragedy 


Dr. G. Campbell Morgan says that 
when holding meetings in a city of 
Nebraska he had a _ conversation 
with Commander Booth-Tucker, 
who had just lost his wife in a rail- 
road accident. Doctor Morgan says: 
“It was in the city of Omaha. I 
said to him: ‘Commander, the pass- 
ing of your beloved wife was one of 
the things that I freely confess I 
cannot understand.’ He said to me: 
‘Dear man, do you not know that 
the Cross can only be preached by 
tragedy?’ Then he told me this 
incident: ‘When I and my wife were 
last in Chicago I was trying to lead 
a sceptic to Christ in a meeting. 
At last the sceptic said, with a cold, 
glittering eye and a sarcastic voice, 
“Tt is all very well. You mean well, 
but I lost my faith in God when my 
wife was taken out of my home. It 
is all very well; but if that beautiful 
woman at your side lay dead and 
cold by you, how would you believe 
in God?”’ Within one month she 
had been taken through the awful 
tragedy of a railway accident, and 
the Commander went back to 
Chicago, and in the hearing of a 


72 CHRIST 


vast multitude said: ‘Here in the 
midst of the crowd, standing by the 
side of my dead wife as I take her 
to burial, I want to say that I still 
believe in God, and love him, and 
know him.’’”—S. S. Chronicle. 


x24. Cross—Reform Through 


Many are the schemes which have 
been formulated for the uplift of 
humanity and the bringing in of 
the kingdom of God. Most of them 
fail for the reason that they ignore 
the greatest power of all—the influ- 
ence of Christ in human hearts. In 
his letter of resignation, as pastor of 
Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, Dr. 
Lyman Abbott said, “I see that what 
I had once hoped might be done for 
my fellows through schemes of 
social reform and philanthropy can 
only be done by influence of Jesus 
Christ. There is no dynamo in 
reform save the Cross of Jesus 
Christ.” 


125. Cross—World Needs the 


Doctor Chamberlain, one of the 
oldest missionaries in India, says 
that one day while he was preach- 
ing in Benares, among the devotees 
who came to bathe in the sacred 
stream by which he was standing, 
was a man who had journeyed 
wearily on his knees and elbows 
from a great distance with the pain 
of conviction at his heart. He hoped 
by washing in the Ganges to be re- 
lieved of his “looking for judgment.” 
Poor Soul! He dragged himself to 
the river’s edge, made his prayer to 
Gunga, and crept in. A moment 
later he emerged with the old pain 
still tugging at his heart. He lay 
prostrate on the bank in his despair 
and heard the voice of the mission- 
ary. He raised himself and crawled 
a little nearer. He listened to the 
simple story of the cross; he was 
hungry and thirsty for it. He rose 
upon his knees, then upon his feet, 
then clapped his hands and cried: 


“That’s what I want! That’s what 
I want!” 
That story of the cross is what the 


whole world wants. The world 


- wants Christ, for Christ has what 


the world needs. 


126. Everybody Somebody 
to Jesus 


Down the High Street of Edin- 
burgh there came rushing a carriage 
and some horses, the horses having 
taken. fright. A road was instantly 
cleared for them. At the bottom of 
the hill was a little child in the 


center of the street, who was stand-. 


ing quite unconscious of the certain 
death rushing down upon it. The 
people stood aghast; no one rushed 
to save the child, and still the horses 
dashed on. A Scotchwoman walk- 
ing along suddenly saw the danger- 
ous position that the child was in; 
she sprang like lightning, caught the 
child in her arms, and rescued it 
from the imminent danger in which 
it was placed. Some came instantly 
to the woman and said, “Ma’am, is 
that child yours?” “No,” she said, 
“it is not mine, I do not know whose 
it is, but it is somebody’s bairn.”— 
Guthrie. 


z27. Hope—The Only 


Here is a remarkable bit of 
reminiscence by Gipsy Smith. “In 
1918,” he says, “the government sent 
me to America to do propaganda 
work. I spent three months there, 
came home and was sent out again. 
Just before I went the second time 
I was at a luncheon at which the 
late Lord Moulton, the Allies’ expert 
for high explosives, was one of the 
chief guests. I heard him say, ‘In 
the midst of this world’s havoc and 
devastation and heart-break, my only 
hope is the preaching of Jesus.’ 
When I got on the boat I sat beside 
Professor Simpson, grand-nephew 
of the discoverer of chloroform and 
himself an expert on Russian affairs. 





CHRIST 73 


‘Gipsy,’ he said, ‘militarism fails, 
politics fail, educationalists fail, 
social reformers fail, Jesus has never 
failed.’ On the same boat the presi- 
dent of the Board of Education for 
China was returning from consulta- 
tions with the Allies in London. He 
asked for an interview and _ his 
secretary plied me with questions. 
This Chinese educationalist said, 
‘Sir, the only hope I have for my 
country is Jesus.’” 


128. Jesus a Pilot 


A few years ago, I was sent for 
to see a man who was dying. Fol- 
lowing the little granddaughter, who 
came for me, I soon found myself 
in a rear basement with an old pilot 
of the Hudson River Line, seventy 
years of age, who was in the dire 
grip of pneumonia, with that labored 
breathing which showed that death 
was but a few moments ahead. 
Overwhelmed with a sense of re- 
sponsibility that was upon me, I 
stepped up to the old man’s bedside 
and began to talk to him as tenderly 
and sweetly as I knew how about 
the love of Jesus and his power to 
save, but evidently to no effect. 
Growing desperate, I seemed to hear 
the Spirit saying to me, “Present 
Jesus to him as the pilot’s pilot and 
you will reach him.” Seizing the 
hint, I looked him straight in the eye, 
took hold of his calloused hand, 
already clammy and cold with the 
touch of death, and said: “How 
many times, my friend, when the fog 
was on the river and the current 
against you, the only thing that kept 
your boat off the rocks was your 
clear eye and your steady nerve. 
Now you are in the strait of death, 
the tide is against you and the mist 
hangs heavy over all. What you 
need is a pilot and Jesus is the pilot’s 
pilot. Won’t you take him on 
board?” Gathering up what proved 
to be his dying strength he answered 
promptly and with feeling, “I will,” 
and you could almost see Christ step 


upon the bark of his soul—John 
Balcom Shaw. 


129. Jesus—Divinity of 

A man said to an _ evangelical 
clergyman, “If the doctrine of 
Christ’s deity were true, [ am sure 
so important a doctrine must have 
been revealed with a clearness no 
one could have mistaken.” 

“Well,” said the clergyman, “what 
language would you have chosen?” 

“I would have called him the true 
God,” was the reply. 

“That’s right,” said the old 
preacher; “and that’s just what John 
did call him, ‘even his Son Jesus 
Christ; this is the true God,’” 1 
John 5: 20. 

The Jews tried to stone Jesus to 
death one day, and when he said, 
“What is this for?” they said, “Be- 
cause you, being a man, claim to be 
equal to God and so make yourself 
to be God, and you are a blasphemer 
and you ought to die.” Matt. 26: 63, 
6431273433: Luke. 22: 70,71; John 
19: 7; 5: 18; 10: 33.—His enemies 
so understood his claim. 


130. Jesus—In Place of 


In the orphanage of John Falk at 
Weimar, they were having supper in 
the dining hall and the teacher gave 
thanks in the ordinary way before 
the children began their meal, say- 
ing, “Come, Lord Jesus, and be our 
guest to-night, and bless the mercies 
which thou hast provided.” One 
little boy looked up and _= said, 
“Teacher, you always ask the Lord 
Jesus to come, but he never comes. 
Will he ever come?” “Oh, yes; if 
you will hold on in faith he will be 
sure to come.” “Very well,” said 
the little boy, “I will set a chair for 
him beside me here to-night to be 
ready when he comes.” And so the 
meal proceeded. By and by there 
came a rap at the door, and there 
was ushered in a poor, half-frozen 
apprentice. He was taken to the fire 
and his hands warmed. ‘Then he 


V4 CHRIST 


was asked to partake of the meal, 
and where should he go but to the 
chair which the little boy had pro- 
vided? As he sat down there the 
little boy looked up with a light 
in his eye, and said, “Teacher, I see 
it now! The Lord Jesus was not 
able to come himself, and he 
this poor man in his place. sn’t 
that it?” y 


m31. Jesus—King 

At a missionary meeting on the 
island of Raratonga, in the Pacific 
Ocean, an old man, who wished to 
join the Church, rose and said, “I 
have lived during the reign of four 
kings. In the first we were con- 
tinually at war, and a fearful sea- 
son it was watching and hiding with 
fear. During the reign of the 
second we were overtaken with a 
severe famine, and all expected to 
perish; then we ate rats and grass 
and this wood and that wood. Dur- 
ing the third we were conquered, and 
became the peck and prey of the 
two other settlements of the island; 
then if a man went to fish he rarely 
ever returned, or if a woman went 
far away to fetch food she was rarely 
ever seen again. But during the 
reign of this third king we were 
visited by another King, a great 
King, a good King, a peaceful King, 
a King of love, Jesus, the Lord from 
heaven. He has gained the victory. 
He has conquered our hearts; there- 
fore we now have peace and plenty 
in this world, and hope soon to 
dwell with Him in heaven.”—R. 
Brewin. 


132. Jesus, Lover of My Soul 


There used to live a man in Brook- 
lyn, N. Y., without any arms. Pos- 
sibly he is living there yet. This 
was his story: When the Civil War 
broke out he felt it his duty to 
volunteer. He was engaged to be 
married, and while in the army 
letters passed frequently between 
him and his intended wife. After 


the battle of the Wilderness the 
young lady waited anxiously day 
aiter day to receive the longed-for 
letter from him. At last a letter 
came ina strange hand. She opened 
it with trembling fingers and fore- 
boding heart, and read these words: 
“It has been a terrible battle. I have 
been wounded so awfully that I shall 
never be able to support you. A 
friend writes this for me. I love you 
more tenderly than ever, but I re- 
lease you from your promise. I will 
not ask you to join your life with a 
maimed life like mine.” That letter 
was never answered. The next train 
that left for the South carried that 
young lady with it. She went to the 
hospital; she found out the number 
of his cot and went down the aisle, 
between the long rows of wounded 
men. At last she saw the number. 
She threw her arms around his neck 
and said, “Ill not desert you. T'll 
take care of you.” He did not resist 
her love. They were married, and 
for many years they lived very 
happily together. O my brother, you 
cannot save yourself. Your sins 
have maimed and marred you, and 
you are helpless unless some divine 
and glorious being shall come to 
your rescue. But Jesus Christ comes 
and says: “I was wounded for your 
transgressions, I was bruised for your 
iniquities, I bore your sins in mine 
own body on the cross, and I have 
gained the right to care for you, 
and if you will but yield yourself to 
me, I will care for you through all 
eternity.” That young man could 
have spurned that noble woman’s 
love; he could, but he did not. So 
you can, if you will, refuse Jesus 
Christ, spurn his love, and reject 
his offered mercy; but I do not 
believe you will do that. Give him 
your heart and your confession here 
and now.—Louis Albert Banks. 


133. Jesus—WMistaken for 


A friendless lad, who had known 
nothing but unkindness and want 


CHRIST 75 


throughout his life, lay ill with fever 
in the hospital. He was visited by 
a gentleman who brought him medi- 
cine and food and fruit. The child 
was silent for a time as he watched 
the visitor move around the room, 
then he asked: “Sir, are you Jesus?” 

That poor lad’s question may 
sound ignorant to you and me, but 
what a beautiful thing to be asked! 
And, .after all, it was the spirit of 
Jesus that was working through that 
gentleman. Dear friend, could any- 
one mistake you for Jesus? Are you 
so kind, so gentle, so loving that you 
bear the likeness of Him who “went 
about doing good”? 


134. Jesus—Name of 


When Sir James Mackintosh was 
lying upon his deathbed, whenever a 
verse of Scripture was read to him 
he always showed by some sign that 
he heard it. “And,” says his 
daughter, “I especially observed that 
at every mention of the name of 
Jesus Christ, if his eyes were closed, 
he always opened them and looked 
at the person who had _ spoken. 
Once, after a long silence, he said, 
‘I believe > We said, in a voice 
of inquiry, ‘In God?’: He answered, 
‘In Jesus.’ He spoke but once after 
this. Upon our inquiring how he 
felt, he said he was ‘Happy.’” 

It would seem as if other names 
in the memories of the saints are 
like those cut deeply into the poet’s 
fabled rock of ice, which gradually, 
as the sun came round day by day 
melting the ice, became less and 
less plain, till at length they melted 
away altogether. But it is not so 
with the name of Jesus. The Psalm- 
ist says, “His name shall be con- 
tinued as long as the sun, and men 
shall be blessed in Him: all nations 
shall call Him blessed.”—R. Brewin. 





135. Jesus—Searching for 


“Behold Wise-Men from the east 
came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is 


he that is born King of the Jews?” 
Mait."2: yi a: 

Some years ago a missionary in 
Africa became deeply interested in a 
young native African who had be- 
come a very earnest Christian. Day 
after day the boy would come to her 
to learn more about Jesus and his 
teachings. At last his teacher laugh- 
ingly said, “Sammy, if you want to 
know any more, you must go to 
(naming a very prominent 
Christian worker) in New York.” 
The boy asked where he lived and 
she told him that New York was 
away across the great water. The 
boy asked many more questions 
about it, and in a few days he dis- 
appeared. He walked to the coast, © 
where he found a ship that was 
going to New York. At first they 
refused to allow him to go with 
them, but after much pleading, he 
was finally allowed to “work his pas- 
sage” to New York, where he soon 
found the man for whom he was 
searching. To him he at once said, 
“T have come to learn more about 
Jesus.” This man became so im- 
pressed with the boy’s earnestness 
that he had him educated. The 
earnest student died while in the 
university where he was preparing 
himself that he might go as a mis- 
sionary to his own people. When he 
died, several of his classmates, who 
had been impressed with his remark- 
able Christian life, volunteered to 
go as missionaries to Africa in his 
place. Thousands are coming to our 
shores every day inquiring, “Where 
is he that is born King of the Jews?” 

This incident was told by a brother 
of one of Sammy’s classmates.— 


Lino. ark, 





136. Jesus Waiting 

A busy woman entered her room 
hastily as twilight shades were fall- 
ing, went directly to her desk, turned 
on the gas, and began to write. Page 
after page she wrote, five minutes 
she worked, ten, half an hour, the 


76 CHRIST 


solitude became oppressive. She 
wheeled in her chair around, and, 
with a shock of joyful surprise, 
looked squarely into the smiling face 


of her dearest friend, lying on the: 


lounge by her side. 

“Why, I didn’t know you were 
here!” she cried. “Why didn’t you 
speak to me?” 

“Because you were so busy. You 
didn’t speak to me.” 

So with Jesus. He is here all the 
time. 


137. Jesus—Waiting for 

A. skilled nurse in the Dufferin 
Hospital in India was seated on the 
veranda reading, when a high class 
Hindu woman came up the steps. 
She rose to speak to her. A copy 
of Holman Hunt’s picture of Christ 
standing outside the closed door 
fell out of her book to the ground. 
The woman picked it up and looked 
arity 

“Tell me about this,” she said. 
“What does it mean?” 

Miss Henderson told her, and the 
woman went away. 

Summer passed into autumn, and 
autumn into winter, and there was 
snow on the mountains, and the air 
was chill, and Miss Henderson went 
to call upon this woman. 

As she came near the house she 
saw the door standing wide open. 
She entered and—the physical need 
of the woman foremost in her mind, 
for she was a trained nurse—at 
once said: “You should not have 
your front door open so. The moun- 
tains are covered with snow, and it 
is cold.” 

Then the woman, with a half shy 
reserve, said: 

“T know it. I have seen the snow, 
and I have felt the cold, but I 
thought that perhaps your Jesus 
might pass by, and I wanted him to 
find the door wide open.” 


138. Jesus—Work of 
“The work of Jesus in the world 


is two-fold. It is a work accom- 
plished for us, destined to effect re- 
conciliation between God and man; 
it is a work accomplished in us, with 
the object of effecting our sanctifi- 
cation. By the one, a right relation 
is established between God and us; 
by the other is the fruit of the re- 
established order. By the former 
the condemned sinner is received 
into the state of grace; by the latter 
the pardoned sinner is associated 
with the life of God. . . . How 
many express themselves as if when 
forgiveness, with the peace which 
it procures has been once obtained, 
ali is finished, and the work of sal- 
vation consists in the health of the 
soul, and that the health of the soul 
consists in holiness. Forgiveness is 
not the re-establishment of health, it 
is but the crisis of convalescence. If 
God thinks fit to declare the sinner 
righteous, it is in order that He may 
by that means restore him to holi- 
ness.” —Godet. 


139. King—A New 

One of the most influential of all 
the Chinese who have accepted 
Christ in recent years is a man who 
has held high office in the educa- 
tional life of China, and who is a 
recognized authority upon Chinese 
education. He had magnificent pros- 
pects before him. Position, influ- 
ence, opportunity, all were his. The 
study of the New Testament brought 
to him the conviction that Christ was 
the Saviour of men, and his Saviour. 
After a period of struggle, and of 
counting the cost, he determined on 
his confession before men. His 
dearest friend pleaded with him 
earnestly, agonizingly. He pleaded 
in vain. Then he urged him to 
secret discipleship. “Bow to the 
tablet of Confucius; it is only an 
empty form, and you can believe 
what you like in your heart.” It was 
a struggle, with friendship also 
wavering in the balance. But he 
replied: “A few days ago One came 





CHRIST 77 


to dwell within my heart; He has 
changed all life for me forever. I 
dare not bow to any other, lest He 
depart.” He had found a new King, 
one Jesus. 


140. Loyalty—Power of 


In the battle of Sadowa, after 
the Prussians had gained the victory 
over the Austrians, a young Austrian 
officer was found mortally wounded 
in a wet ditch, When the Prus- 
sian ambulance officers tried to re- 
move him he besought them with 
such terrible earnestness to let him 
lie where he was and die in peace, 
that at last, seeing he had but a few 
hours to live, they yielded to his 
entreaties; and there, in that wet 
ditch, he died. When they moved 
the body they discovered the reason 
of his earnestness to be left where 
he lay. Underneath the body were 
found hidden the colors of his regi- 
ment. Rather than they should fall 
into the hands of the enemy he had 
covered them with his dying body. 
The noble foe forebore to touch 
them. They wound them round the 
young hero’s body, and buried him in 
that shroud with military honors.— 
Ellice Hopkins. 


Master and Pupil 


A young pianist was giving con- 
certs in the provinces of Germany, 
and, to add to her renown, she an- 
nounced herself as a pupil of the 
celebrated Liszt. Arriving at a small 
provincial town, she advertised a 
concert in the usual way; but what 
was her astonishment and terror 
to see in the list of new arrivals at 
the hotel the name of “M. L’Abbe 
Liszt!” What was she to do? Her 
deception would be discovered, and 
she could never dare to give another 
concert. In her despair she adopted 
the wisest course, and went direct 
to the Abbe himself. Pale, trem- 
bling, and deeply agitated, she 
entered the presence of the great 


141. 


maestro to confess her fraud, and to 
implore his forgiveness. She threw 
herself at his feet, her face bathed 
in tears, and related to him the his- 
tory of her life. Left an orphan 
when very young, and _ possessing 
nothing but her musical gifts, she 
had ventured to shelter herself under 
the protection of his great name, and 
thus to overcome the many obstacles 
which opposed her. Without that 
she would have been nothing—no- 
body. But could he ever forgive 
her? “Come, come,” said the great 
artist, helping her to rise, “we shall 
see what we can do. Here is a 
piano. Let me hear a piece intended 
for the concert to-morrow.” She 
obeyed, and played, at first timidly 
then with all the enthusiasm of re- 
viving hope. The maestro stood 
near her, gave her some advice, sug- 
gested some improvements, and 
when she had finished her piece, said 
most kindly—‘‘Now, my child, I have 
given you a music lesson. You are 
a pupil of Liszt.” Before she could 
recover herself sufficiently to utter a 
word of acknowledgment, he added, 
“Are the programmes printed?” 
“Not yet, sir.” “Then let them add 
to your programme that you will be 
assisted by your master, and that the 
last piece will be played by the Abbe 
Liszt.” Could any reproof be 
keener than such forgiving kindness 
—such noble generosity as this? The 
illustrious musician would no doubt 
have been questioned, and it would 
have been impossible for him to 
speak anything but the truth. But 
charity is ingenious in covering “a 


multitude of sins.” —Christian 
Chronicle. 
142. Mediator—The 


During one of the journeys of 
Queen Victoria a little boy was de- 
sirous of seeing her. He determined 
to go direct to the castle where she 
was residing, and ask to see her. 
He was stopped at the gate by the 
sentry, who demanded what he 


78 CHRIST 


wanted. “I want to see the Queen,” 
he replied. The soldier laughed at 
the boy, and with the butt-end of 
his musket pushed him away, and 
told him to be off immediately, or 
he would shoot him. The boy turned 
to go away, and gave vent to his 
tears. He had not gone far when 
he was met by the Prince of Wales, 
who inquired why he was crying. 
“T want to see the Queen,” replied 
the boy, “and that soldier won’t let 
me.” “Won’t he?” said the Prince; 
“then come along with me, and I'll 
take you to the Queen.” He accord- 
ingly took him by the hand and led 
him towards the castle. On passing 
the sentinel he, as usual, presented 
arms to the Prince, and the boy be- 
came terrified, and ran away, fear- 
ing that the soldier was going to 
shoot him. The Prince soon quieted 
his fears, and led him past the gates 
into the presence of Her Majesty. 
The Queen, with surprise, inquired 
of her son whom he had there; and 
upon being informed of what had 
happened, she laughed heartily, spoke 
kindly to her little visitor, and, to 
his great delight, dismissed him 
with a piece of money. As the 
Prince presented the boy to the 
Queen, so Christ presents us to His 
Father.—Biblical Treasury. 


143. Message—Incomplete 


An old verger used to display to 
visitors the glories of Winchester 
Cathedral in the South of England. 
He was enthusiastic about its his- 
tory, its beauty, its memories; but 
best of all he loved to stand upon 
the cathedral roof and tell the story 
of the way in which news of Well- 
ington’s victory at Waterloo was 
brought to England. It came by 
sailing ship, he said, to the south 
coast and by semaphore was wig- 
wagged overland toward London. In 
due course the semaphore on the 
roof of Winchester Cathedral began 
to spell the message off—W-e-l-l- 
i-n-g-t-o-n — d-e-f-e-a-t-e-d—a n d 


then the fog closed in, the sema- 
phore no longer could be seen, and 
the sad news of the incomplete mes- 
sage went on toward London, plung- 


“ing the country into gloom—“‘Well- 


ington defeated!” But, when the fog 
lifted at last, the semaphore upon 
the top of Winchester Cathedral 
began to work again—W-e-I-l-i-n-g- 
t-o-n — d-e-f-e-a-t-e-d — t-h-e — 
e-n-e-m-y—and, all the more glori- 
ous for the preceding gloom, the 
wonderful news sped across the land 
and lifted up the spirits of the peo- 
ple into grateful joy—“Wellington 
defeated the enemy!” 

So was the dreadful gloom of Cal- 
vary for the despairing disciples dis- 
pelled by the glorious victory of 
Easter Day! So what had seemed 
defeat was changed to triumph! 
From the wonder of that victory the 
Christian Church arose in power ; the 
good news of that victory is the 
deathless message of the Christian 


people; and when Christ _ shall 
have come to his own in the 
hearts of all men, the prophecy 
of that glad Easter Day shall 


be fulfilled. 


144. Pilot—Dropping the 

When the Emperor of Germany 
dismissed his great counselor Bis- 
marck, Punch had a cartoon by Ten- 
niel representing a great liner. Bis- 
marck was just leaving the vessel, 
while the Emperor was watching the 
departing guide with haughty self- 
satisfaction. The cartoon was en- 
titled, “Dropping the Pilot.” And 
the cartoon represents experiences in 
my own life; but instead of a fall- 
ible statesman, I have dismissed the 
infallible God. I have dropped the 
Eternal Pilot. I have called it self- 
dependence, and with a great show 
of courtesy I have bowed my Lord 
out of the boat. And then I have 
taken the helm into my own hands, 
and steered by my own counsels. 
And the end has been sorrow and 
loss.—J. H. Jowett. 


CHRIST 79 


145. Promises 

On every package sent out by a 
certain printer in a large city is an 
impressive trade-mark. It is simply 
a circle within which is his name 
and the words, “I never disappoint.” 
Every promise of the Lord ever 
made to his people might have borne 
that legend. 


146. Righteousness—Hunger for 


With All Your Heart. Do you 
know what that means? Let me tell 
you. A soldier who had been long 
in Southern prisons, called at my 
home after the war. I had met him 
first while we were prisoners in 
Charleston jail. Afterward we were 
together in the jail at Columbia. He 
had gone to Belle Island. Three 
years passed; and now, as we met 
once more, I asked him of his later 
prison experiences. “I don’t remem- 
ber much about it, Chaplain,” he 
said, “only that I wanted bread. I 
know it was twenty-three months 
after my capture before I was re- 
leased. But after I left Columbia 
it is all confused in my mind. I 
know I was at Belle Island awhile, 
and a long time at Andersonville. 


“How hungry I was at Anderson- 
ville! For a while I used to want 
to hear from home. Then I grew 
so hungry that I didn’t think of 
home. For awhile I wanted to 
escape. 
hungry to care for that. I only 
wanted bread, bread, bread. Oh, 
how hungry I was, and how I longed 
for bread!” 


That, my friends, was longing for 
bread “with all the heart”—one su- 
preme, Overmastering desire. Home 
and friends, and liberty and life, lost 
sight of, unthought of, in the cease- 
less craving for needful food! 
Blessed are they who do thus hunger 
after the Bread of Life in Jesus 
Christ, “for they shall be filled” 
(Matt. 5: 6).—Trumbull. 


But by and by I was too . 


147. Sacrifice—Christ-Like 


The most wonderful event in all 
the world’s history was the Son of 
God becoming man. This happened 
when he was born as a babe in 
Bethlehem. He came into the world 
that he might get nearer to the peo- 
ple, and tell them of God’s love. A 
story is told of a Moravian mission- 
ary who went to the West Indies 
to preach to the slaves. But they 
were toiling all the day in the fields, 
and he could not get near to them. 
So he had himself sold as a slave 
and went among the other slaves, 
toiling with them in the fields, that he 
might tell the story of God’s love. 
This illustrates in a way what Christ 
did.—J. R. Miller. . 


148. Saviour—Discovery of 


It is related of the great Scotch 
surgeon, Sir James Simpson, that he 
was once approached by a young 
man who wished to compliment him 
by asking what he regarded his 
greatest discovery, and the simple 
reply of this eminent scientist was, 
“My greatest discovery is that I am 
a great sinner and that Jesus is a 
great Saviour.” 


149. Saviour—Searching for 


Tolstoi has told of a shoemaker 
who one night had a vision of the 
Saviour, who said to him, “Martin, 
look for me to-morrow on the street. 
I shall meet you there!” 

Although the shoemaker did not 
place much faith in his dream, still 
on the next day he could not help 
watching everyone he met. But 
nothing happened, save two or three 
trifling incidents. Seeing an old 
street-sweeper, Martin called him in, 
gave him refreshment, and warmed 
him by his fire. A little later he 
noticed a poor woman with a child, 
shivering with cold as she begged 
from the passers-by. He gave her 
an old cloak and a few pennies to 
buy food for herself and her baby. 


80 CHRIST 


Just before night he made peace be- 
tween an apple-woman. and a boy 
who had stolen one of her apples; 
got the urchin to restore the fruit, 
and taught him to ask forgiveness, 
and her to forgive. They walked off 
together good friends, the boy carry- 
ing the basket. Nothing else hap- 
pened. A very disappointing day! 

But that night the Saviour stood 
again by the shoemaker’s bedside, 
and said gently, “Martin, Martin, did 
you not recognize me?” And when 
Martin awoke, his soul was rejoiced; 
for his New Testament was open, 
and his eyes fell upon these words, 
“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
one of the least of these my 
brethren, ye have done it unto me.” 


z50. Saviours—Two 


A ship had stranded and when 
the boats had been let down it was 
seen that there was not room in 
them for all. Lots were cast, and 
among those who had to remain 
behind was a young and very wicked 
sailor. He was very pale and those 
standing near heard him mutter, 
“Lost, lost eternally!” 

But he was picked up and thrown 
into one of the boats. The man 
who had done that called to him: 
“You cannot yet die, but I can and 
am willing to die for you. But mind 
that I see you in heaven!” An old 
sailor who often had told him of 
Jesus and asked him to receive the 
Saviour thus died in his stead. 
Ever after the young man, who 
really accepted Christ, was wont to 
testify in these words: “For me two 
have died!” 


rs1. Saviour—A Great 

Dr. S. L. Baldwin, the missionary 
secretary who went home to heaven 
a few years ago, was for a genera- 
tion a great Chinese missionary. 

I have heard him tell how there 
came one day into his congregation 
a very wicked man. During the 
sermon the preacher said: “Why, 


’ Cafl 


Jesus Christ is such a great Saviour 
that he can take away all your sins.” 
The Chinaman referred to, when he 
heard that sentence, repeated, “God 
take away all your sins.” 
“Why,” he said to himself, “I have 
never heard of any such Saviour as 
that in China before, who can take 
away all my sins,” and he waited 
till the service was over. 

Then he came up and said to the 
missionary, “Did I understand you 
to say that this Jesus about whom 
you have been preaching can take 
away all my sins?” “Yes, that is 
just what I did.” He said, “I think 
you said too much. He might help 
a fellow, but he could never take 
away all my sins.” “Oh, yes,” the 
missionary said, “he can take away 
all your sins.” “Oh, but,” he said, 
“you do not know me. You do not 
know what a sinner I am. Why, do 
you know I am an impure man? 
Can he take away my sin?” “Yes.” 
“Well, do you know that I am a 
liar, I am an opium smoker, and 
have been an opium smoker for 
nineteen years? Why, you know 
perfectly well that no man that has 
smoked opium for nineteen years 
can ever be cured. Now, do you sup- 
pose that he can take away my sin?” 
“Yes, sir, he can take away your 
sin.” “Well,” said he, “he is a won- 
derful Saviour;’ and he could not 
get the thought out of his mind: 
“This Saviour can take away all my 
sin.’ He could not believe it. He 
came and talked with the missionary 
over and over and over again about 
it, until at last the beautiful truths 
of the Bible found their way into 
his soul, drop by drop; and one 
morning some weeks after he came 
running along into the mission 
premises. “Oh, yes,” he exclaimed, 
“T know it. I have found it; I have 
found it. He has taken away my 
sin.” 


152. Suffering for Christ 
Newell Dwight Hillis has a little 


FATHER 81 


book with the title, “The Misfor- 
tune of a World Without Pain.” In 
the catalogue of a certain dealer the 
title is, “The Misfortune of a World 
With Pain.” The last title fits the 
thought of many better than the first 
title. A great scientist said once 
upon a time that the existence of a 
single human ache was an imputa- 
tion upon the existence of a God of 
love. How Peter had learned of his 
Master when he said that it was pos- 
sible to suffer as a Christian. And 
Paul’s commission was, “I will show 
him how many things he must suffer 
for my name’s sake.” 


153. The Song of a Heathen 
(Sojourning in Galilee, a. pb. 32) 
If Jesus Christ is a man,— 
And only .a man,—I say 
That of all mankind I cleave to him, 
And to him will I cleave alway. 


If Jesus Christ is a God,— 
And the only God,—I swear 
I will follow Him through heaven 
and hell, 
The earth, the sea, and the air! 
—Richard Watson Gilder. 


154. Victory Over Odds 


Private Wilson, of the Highland 
Light Infantry, charged a Maxim 
gun of the Germans that was play- 
ing on the British position and 
mowing down his comrades. 

“Mon, I’m angry with yon gun, 
an’ I’m gaun to stop it,” he said to a 
private of the King’s Royal Rifles. 
The rifleman followed him, but soon 
fell. Wilson dodged among hay- 
stacks until he got into position, and 
with a deadly shot brought down 
the German gunner. Another took 
his place at the gun, and Wilson 
fetched him down. A third, fourth, 
fifth and sixth man fell in the same 
way. When he had silenced the en- 
tire crew, and rushed forward and 
bayoneted an officer who fired at 


and missed him, he slewed the gun 
around and mowed down a company 
of German reinforcements. He 
went back unscathed, fell in a faint, 
only to awaken and ask whether 
the gun had been brought in. Told 
it had not, he staggered back and 
returned with it on his shoulder, 
Then he went back again after his 
wounded comrade. 

“Thank God, you got the gun!” 
were the dying fellow’s last words 
to Wilson. 

But the gun was only a trophy; 
the real victory was the triumph of 
courage against odds. So the real 
victory of Christ was the cross and 
the resurrection, but his healings 
advertised him as One with a divine 
mission.—John F, Cowan. 


FATHER 


155. Father—Discovering 


The other day I read a story of 
how a little girl discovered her 
father. She was the daughter of a 
famous French painter. Though she 
had lived with her father all her life 
she had never really seen him, for 
she had lost her sight when she was 
a baby. But she loved him very 
dearly, and he was her constant com- 
panion, for her mother was dead. 

One day a clever doctor saw the 
child and said that he could cure her 
blindness by performing an opera- 
tion. How happy and excited the 
little girl was at the thought of being 
able to see! And what made her 
happiest was the thought that at last 
she would look upon her father. 
When the operation was successfully 
over and the bandages were re- 
moved from her eyes, she ran to 
him and looked up trembling in his 
face. Then she shut her eyes and 
felt his face all over with her little 
fingers to make sure it was that of 
her loved companion. Then she 
opened her eyes again and gazed 
and gazed, and then, holding him 


82 FATHER 


tightly by the hand, she cried, “Only 
to think I had this splendid father so 
many years, and never knew him !”— 
James Hastings. 


156. Father’s Energy 


In the coal mines of Lancashire, a 
coal pit shelved in. The crowds 
gathered around clearing the mass 
of earth to get at the men at work 
beneath. In the midst of their toil 
a stalwart gray-bearded old man 
strode up to them and said, “Get out 
of the road.” He seized a pick and 
began working with the strength of 
ten men. The sweat was soon 
streaming down his brawny face and 
somebody said, “Let me have the 
pick.” “Get out of the way,” he 
cried, “I have two boys down there.” 
—Louis Albert Banks. 


157. Father—Joy of 

As the Rev. Joseph Davis, an. 
excellent Baptist minister in Lon- 
don, was walking along one of the 
crowded streets of that city his at- 
tention was arrested by the circum- 
stance that a carriage with several 
horses was just about to pass over 
a little girl who was slowly crossing 
the road. He strongly felt the 
danger of the child, and forgetting 
his own, he ran, snatched her up in 
his arms, and hastened with her to 
the side-path, when the thought 
struck him—how would the parents 
of this dear child have felt had she 
been killed! At this moment he 
looked in the face of the little girl, 
which had been concealed from his 
view by her bonnet, and imagine, if 
you can, what his feelings were 
when he discovered that she was his 
daughter !—Arvine. 


158. Father’s Love 

A friend once told me this story 
of his boyhood: “There were two 
brothers of us. Our father was a 
fine old gentleman, upright, straight- 
forwarl, but he was very undemon- 
strative. He could not gush over 


anybody. If he told mother once in 
ten years that he loved her he 
thought that was quite sufficient. He 
would make any sacrifice for her in 


‘reason, or out of it, but he would 


not express any affection for her. 
One day, when we were lads of 
about ten and twelve years of age, a 
fellow came into our house, who was 
slightly intoxicated, and he dared 
to insult mother right in the pres- 
ence of father. Well, the thing that 
happened, happened so quickly that 
we hardly knew what had happened. 
When it was over as soon as I could 
catch my breath, I turned to my 
brother, and said, ‘Did you know 
that father thought that much of 
mother?’ He replied, ‘Why, yes; of 
course, father thinks that much of 
mother all the time, only he don’t 
make a show of it like that every 
day.’ 3? 


159. Guide—Father as 


I sometimes think of it as of a 
child sitting in a boat. The child 
does not know the coast, and it very 
little understands how to row. If 
the child were left to itself, pulling 
upon the oars, its right hand being 
a little stronger than the other, it 
would be all the time veering the 
boat to the right, and the boat would 
be constantly turning round and 
round. The child would, perhaps, 
make its way out of the harbor and 
into the ocean, and it would be 
carried away and lost, if there were 
no guiding power in the boat except 
its own. But there in the stern 
sits the father. The uneven strokes 
of the child would carry the boat this 
way or that way out of its course; 
but the steady hand of the father 
overcomes those uneven strokes; 
and all the mistakes with the oars 
are rectified by the rudder, and the 
boat keeps the right course. So that 
the force exerted by the child, 
though misdirected, all works for 
good when the father guides.— 
Beecher. 


FORGIVENESS 83 


FORGIVENESS 


160. Christ’s Mediatorship 


In foreign courts we have min- 
isters and ambassadors to intercede 
for us. They are mediators; they 
are intercessors. There is an unac- 
quaintance, a strangeness, in foreign 
courts, of the affairs of another 
people, either from attending to 
their own business, or some other 
cause, and hence the necessity of our 
sending ambassadors to them. But 
it cannot be supposed that there is 
any such ignorance of our affairs 
in the mind of God. You must drop 
all such ideas of the intercessor- 
ship of Christ as that he is one to 
convey information, to adjust facts, 
or to make things clearer in the 
divine mind than they were already. 
His mediatorship affects us, not God. 
—H. W. Beecher. 


161. Forgiven Debts 

Not long ago there died a benevo- 
lent doctor, and it had been his 
custom as he went through his books 


and saw this debt and that debt, one 


after the other, and realized that it 
was not paid because the patient 
could not pay it, it was his way to 
put a red pen-mark through the debt, 
and to write by the side of it, “For- 
given; unable to pay.” That man 
died, and after his death his wife 
looked through his books, and she 
came upon these marks. “My hus- 
band has forgiven people a lot of 
money. I could do with that money 
very well now,” and she took it into 
the county court, and there sued 
every one of those debtors for the 
money. The judge said to her, 
“How do you know the money is 
owed?” “Tl have it in my husband’s 
book,” and she put the book up and 
showed it to him. “Oh, yes; is this 
your husband’s writing?” he asked. 
“Yes.” “Then,” he said, “no court 
in the world will give you a verdict 
against those people when your hus- 
band, with his own pen, has written, 


‘Forgiven; unable to pay.’’’—Life of 
Faith. 
z62. Forgiveness and Progress 


I visited a farmer whose ground 
was upon the bank of a creek just 
a quarter of a mile from the river. 
There had once been a navigable 
channel up to the landing in his 
meadow ; but a scow had sunk in the 
channel and a bar had formed. His 
ground produced bountifully, but he 
had no communication with a market. 
As spring approached he said to his 
sons: “Boys, there is one thing 
that must be done if we purpose to 
make this farm a success. We must 
go to work and remove that old 
wreck from the channel.” It was 
three weeks of hard work, but the 
channel was cleared and a market 
made accessible that doubled the 
value of his truck. Many lives are 
isolated from God and their fel- 
lows by old wrecks in the channel— 
feuds, unforgiven sins, unpaid debts, 
broken promises. Clear the channel 
and the usefulness and peace and 
price of your life will be doubled. 


163. Forgiveness From God 


Doctor Scudder, on his return 
from his missions in India, with his 
son heard a man using profane lan- 
guage. 

“See, friend,” said the doctor, ac- 
costing the swearer, “this boy, my 
son, was born and brought up in a 
heathen country and a land of pagan 
idolatry; but in all his life he has 
never heard a man blaspheme his 
Maker until now.” 

The man colored, seemed to be 
ashamed of himself, and blurted out 
an apology. 

“Do not forget that God heard 


you,” said the missionary. “You 
need his forgiveness more _ than 
mine.” 


164. Forgiveness of Enemies 


An English officer riding over the 
battlefield with his servant, noticed a 


84 


wounded enemy soldier. “Give the 
poor fellow a drink from the water- 
bottle,’ he said. As the servant 
stooped down the soldier fired, and 
missed. Stepping back, he said: 
“What shall I do now, sir?” “Give 
him the water all the same,” was the 
noble officer’s reply. God forgives— 
not once, but countless times. 
Through all our disobedience and 
waywardness, he never tires, but 
loves us to the end, until at last we 
return in penitence to him—From 
the Sunday Circle. 


165. God’s Forgiveness Absolute 


Paul, in describing the forgive- 
ness of God wrought through Jesus 
Christ, uses this remarkable figure: 
“Blotting out the handwriting of 
ordinances that was against us.” It 
is like taking an indictment in court, 
and tearing it up and throwing it 
away. It is like taking a title-deed 
of a man’s possession, a paper on 
which is written evidence that 1s 
fatal to his claim, and blotting it, 
or burning it. It is like taking away 
proof against a man which may lead 
to his injury—H. W. Beecher. 


166. New Relationship 


A child may have been wilful and 
petulant until its mother’s anger has 
been roused, but when the little 
arms are clasped in a sobbing con- 
fidence round the mother’s neck, the 
trust confessed in the clinging pres- 
sure banishes all alienation. The 
man who has erred in his word or 
deed, and wronged us to our wound- 
ing, comes to us trusting in our 
magnanimity and kindness, and his 
trust brings him at once into a new 
relationship. In a similar manner 
when a human soul, hitherto cherish- 
ing base thoughts of God and rebel- 
lious in will against His demands, 
turns to trust in God, he enters into 
a new relationship. In that new 
relationship he is forgiven. His sins 
are not imputed to him, and his faith 


FORGIVENESS 


is counted to him as righteousness.— 
W. M. Clow. 


167. Praise—Sacrifice of 


When we were on the Pacific coast, 
thirty men, red-eyed and disheveled, 
lined up before a judge of a San 
Francisco Police Court. It was the 
regular morning company of drunks 
and disorderlies. Some were old 
and hardened; others hung their 
heads in shame. Just as the momen- 
tary disorder attending the bringing 
in of the prisoners quieted down, a 
strange thing happened. A strong, 
clear voice from below began sing- 
ing: 

Last nig’t I lay sleeping 
There came a dream so fair. 


Last night? It had been for them 
all a nightmare or a drunken 
stupor. The song was such a con- 
trast to the horrible fact that no one 
could avoid the sudden shock at the 
thought the song suggested. 


I stood in old Jerusalem, 
Beside the temple there. 


The song went on. The judge had 
paused. He made a quiet inquiry. 
A former member of a famous opera 
company was waiting trial for 
forgery. It was he who was singing 
in his cell. 

Meanwhile the song went on. 
Every man in the line showed emo- 
tion. One boy at the end of the 
line, after desperate effort at self- 
control, leaned against the wall, 
buried his face in his folded arms 
and sobbed: “Oh mother, mother !” 

The sobs cutting the weary hearts 
of the men who heard, and the song, 
still welling its way through the 
court room blended in the hush. At 
length one man protested: 

“Judge,” he said, “have we got to 
submit to this? We're here to take 
our punishment, but this—.” He, 
too, began to sob. 

It was impossible to proceed with 
the business of the court, yet the 


FORGIVENESS 85 


judge gave no order to stop the sing- 
ing. The police sergeant, after a sur- 
prised effort to keep the men in line, 
stepped back and waited with the 
rest. The song moved to its climax: 


Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Sing, for the 
night is o’er! 

Hosanna in the highest, Hosanna for 
evermore. 


In an ecstasy of melody the last 
words rang out and then there was 
silence. 

The judge looked into the faces of 
the men before him. There was not 
one who was not touched by the 
song; not one in whom some better 
impulse was not stirred. He did not 
call the cases singly—a kind word 
of advice, and he dismissed them 
all. No man was fined nor sentenced 
to the workhouse that morning. The 
song had done more good than pun- 
ishment could have accomplished. 


-168. Quality of Mercy 

Mayor Gaynor, of New York, had 
befriended a poor “down-and-outer,” 
and for this a lawyer took him to 
task. 

“The fellow’s no good,” the lawyer 
said. “He has only got what was 
coming to him. With his yellow 
streak, the duffer deserved—” 

But Mayor Gaynor interrupted the 
harsh lawyer with a smile. 

“Did you ever hear of the mother,” 
he said, “who visited Napoleon on 
behalf of a son condemned to death? 
The Emperor said the young man 
had twice committed the same 
offense, and justice demanded the 
forfeit of his life. 

“But, sire,’ cried the mother, ‘I 
don’t plea for justice, but for 
mercy.’ 

“He does not deserve mercy,’ 
said the Emperor. 

““Ah, no; he does not, indeed,’ the 
mother admitted, ‘but it would not 
be mercy, sire, if he deserved it.’ 

“Well then,’ said Napoleon 
quietly, ‘I will have mercy.’ ” 


169. Saved or Unsaved 

One does not look for the teach- 
ing of absolute righteousness in an 
arithmetic textbook. But in the 
arithmetic which my little girl 
brought home from school I saw a 
note to the teacher, saying, “Im- 
press upon the pupil the necessity of 
absolutely correct solutions. There 
is no such thing as an answer nearly 


right. The answer is right or 
wrong.” 
170. Sinner—Lifting the 


The power to forgive sins lies in 
Jesus as the Son of God. That fact 
makes his gospel attractive to a sin 
laden world. This power of Jesus 
to save and uplift fallen man is 
shown by Doctor Shelden in the fol- 
lowing manner. He says: “A heavy 
mogul engine, one of the heaviest 
patterns of that type, through a land- 
slide beneath the rails, fell over and 
rolled down the embankment into 
the river. It was not damaged to 
any extent, and the railroad wished 
to recover its property. It brought 
up the road what it thought was a 
proper apparatus for dragging the 
engine up the slope and putting it on 
the track, but when the power was 
applied it was found insufficient. 
Chains, tackling of various kinds, 
and the engines for the motive 
power itself proved to be so weak 
that first one part and then another 
broke down under the strain, and 
the entire outfit was sent back to 
the shops and an entirely new engine 
with hoisting derrick, sent to the 
embankment in its place. The 
minute this new engine appeared, all 
the men who had been at work in a 
vain endeavor to lift the ponderous 
engine out of its position at the 
bottom of the river, exclaimed, 
“That is something like. Now we 
have it.” The first attempt proved 
successful. The ponderous weight 
of several tons was lifted out of the 
water and up the bank as easily as 
a child would lift a toy. 


86 GOD 


No one has any reason to antici- 
pate weakness in the case of Christ 
confronting broken down humanity. 
“He came to seek and to save that 
which is lost.” “Who can forgive 
sins but God only?” 


171. Transgression Forgiven 


The colonel of the regiment, 
seated with his fellow-officers in 
court-martial, looked at the prisoner 
before him with a troubled frown 
upon his kindly old face. They were 
upon an Indian station and life was 
not altogether easy for the men 
under his care. The man _ before 
him, however, seemed absolutely in- 
corrigible. 

“What to do with you I do not 
know,” said the colonel. “You have 
been charged again and again with 
drunkenness. You have had punish- 
ment after punishment and yet here 
you are again!” 

The prisoner was indeed a sorry 
spectacle. Repeated excess in a hot 
climate had made him almost a 
wreck. If any case would be termed 
hopeless here it was. The colonel 
looked round at his brother officers 
in despair. “What is to be done?” 
he asked. “We have tried every- 
thing.” “May I examine the record, 
sir?” inquired a bright young cap- 
tain. “I believe I have something to 
suggest.” The colonel, interested 
and relieved, passed him the man’s 
record. “I thought so, sir,” cried the 
captain eagerly. “There is one thing 
that has never been done to this 
man.” ‘What, pray, is that?” asked 
the colonel. “Sir,” replied the cap- 
tain solemnly, “this man Has Never 
been Forgiven.” The statement fell 
like a thunderclap on the little com- 
pany of hard-bitten military men and 
a hush fell upon them that bespoke 
conviction. 

Turning to the prisoner the 
colonel said, “You have been pun- 
ished many times and are no better, 
indeed, you are worse. See, this 
time, I wipe the thing off the charge- 


sheet. 
given.” 
With a sort of surprised relief 


You are free—you are for- 


‘the man flung his face into his hands 


and with heaving shoulders left the 
court. From that day he was a dif- 
ferent man. He cut the drink right 
out and became after a few years 
one of the most trusted men of the 
regiment, rising steadily in rank. 


GOD 


172. Accountability to God 


It is related of Daniel Webster, 
the regality of whose moral endow- 
ments no one disputes, that when 
once asked what was the greatest 
thought that had ever occupied his 
mind, he replied, “The fact of my 
personal accountability to God.”—T. 
T. Munger. 


173. Appearing Before God 


Ii, to-day, there should come fly- 
ing hither a messenger who should 
say, “One hundred members of this 
congregation, now assembled, are to 
die this year,” no. matter whether 
any designation of persons was 
made, no matter in what month, or 
in what part of the year it should 
take place, every man would say, “It 
may be I.” There are some of you 
that will unquestionably go before 
the end of the year. No man can 
tell who. To learn suddenly, 
when we are engaged in a sultry 
summer day, that some great and 
honored personage is, without warn- 
ing, about to come to our dwelling 
—what haste! what change of gar- 
ments! what hurried preparation of 
the household! But when it is no 
man, however honored, but God, into 
whose presence we are soon to go, 
how natural that we should look at 
the habiliments of the soul, and at 
everything within us and without 
us, aS we never would at any other 
time—as perhaps we never could at 
any other time! What new meas- 


GOD 87 


ures and tests should we apply to 
ourselves !—H. W. Beecher. 


174. God Banished 


“Sire,” announced the servant to 
the King, “the saint Narottam never 
deigns to step into your royal temple. 
He is singing God’s praise under the 
trees by the open road. The temple 
is empty of all worshipers. They 
flock round him like bees round the 
fragrant white lotus, leaving the 
golden jar of honey unheeded.” 

The King, vexed at heart, went to 
the spot where Narottam sat on the 
grass. He asked him, “Father, why 
leave my temple of the golden dome, 
and sit on the dust outside to preach 
God’s love?” 

“Because God is not there in your 
temple,” said Narottam. . 

The King frowned and said, “Do 
you know twenty millions of gold 
have been spent on that marvel of 
art, and the temple was duly con- 
secrated to God with costly rites?” 

“Yes, I know,” answered Narot- 
tam. “It was the dread year when 
thousands of your people lost their 
homes in fire and stood at your door 
for help in vain. And God said, 
‘The poor creature who can give no 
shelter to his brothers would aspire 
to build my house!’ Thus he took 
his place with the shelterless under 
the trees by the road. And that 
golden bubble is empty of all but hot 
vapor of pride.” 

The King cried in anger, “Leave 
my land!” 

Calmly said the saint, “Yes, ban- 
ish me where you have banished my 
God.”—Literary Digest. 


175. God—Argument for 


The old landlady sat in her back- 
parlor in conversation with a lady 
and gentleman, her lodgers. They 
had been with her two months and 
were about to take their leave. Dur- 
ing that time they had grown quite 
fond of the quiet woman with the 
silvered hair upon whose face showed 


such a look of contentment. Some- 
how the conversation drifted nat- 
urally, as it often seemed to do in 
this woman’s presence, to religion. 
The man avowed himself as an un- 
believer in religion. “Do you not 
believe in God?” asked the land- 
lady with a startled look. “No,” re- 
plied the man. “I see no reason for 
believing in a God—at least in one 
who is personal or has regard for 
us poor humans.” 

A look almost of pity flashed over 
the woman’s face. “Let me tell you 
something,” she said, “that con- 
cerns your own self. You remember 
that two months ago you came to 
this house seeking lodgings? When 
your knock came at the door my 
daughter and I were upon our knees 
beseeching God to send us the means 
of livelihood. We were utterly with- 
out a penny and we were just plac- 
ing the matter before God. Then 
came your knock and I quoted to my 
daughter the words ‘Before ye ask 
I will answer.’ You told me that 
you were in poor health and needed 
a long rest and could not afford 
hotel prices, would I take you? And 
even when I said ‘Yes’ I was won- 
dering how to provide you with your 
first meal. I had no money for food 
and being a stranger to the town no 
hope of credit at the shops. Swiftly, 
as the difficulty occurred to me, I 
lifted my heart to God in supplica- 
tion. Perhaps you recall that just 
as you got to the garden gate some- 
thing occurred to your mind and you 
returned to me saying, ‘Had I not 
better leave you a pound as a 
deposit?’ With that pound I bought 
the first meals you and your good 
wife had in this house. Do you 
wonder, when I tell you that my life 
contains many experiences like that, 
that I feel I know there is a God 
and One who cares, too?” 

The man sat quiet a moment and 
then said, “Madam, I thank you. 
What you have said is a stronger 
argument for God than many others 


88 GOD 


I have heard. It must certainly be 
a great strength to anyone to be- 
lieve as you do. I shall never for- 
get either you or your words.”—A. 
D. Belden. 


176. God—Fighting Against 

Various systems and movements 
which cause us anxiety sometimes 
present the appearance of progress 
when there is no reality of progress, 
for they are contrary to the great 
tides of God’s purpose and opera- 
tion. When Parry (the British 
Arctic explorer) attempted to reach 
the North Pole, he discovered that 
the ice floes on which he was 
journeying drifted southward faster 
than he and his companions walked 
north; so at the end of a long day’s 
march they found themselves four 
miles farther from their destination 
than they were in the morning. It is 
sometimes thus with systems, insti- 
tutions, and movements of an equiv- 
ocal character, which appear to ad- 
vance when in reality they do noth- 
ing of the sort. It is an illusion; they 
move in the wrong direction, the 
tide is against them; they are mak- 
ing northward to the realms of dark- 
ness and barrenness, whilst the river 
of God sets southward to the lands 
of the sun and summer. Systems of 
scepticism like Voltairianism, of 
superstition like Mohammedanism, 
of corrupt ecclesiasticism like Ro- 
manism, may seem now and again to 
advance, but the prevailing currents 
are against them, and in a century 
it becomes evident that they are 
farther from their goal than at the 
commencement. If our face is to 
the south, if we strive for light, 
righteousness, purity, and peace, for 
the bringing in of the kingdom of 
God, the mighty tide is with us, and, 
notwithstanding the agitations and 
eddies of the moment, we draw 
nearer the golden shore. 

Boundless as ocean’s tide, 

Rolling in fullest pride, 

Through the earth far and wide, 


the Divine Spirit urges forward the 
Ark of God to the heaven of that 
new earth for which we sigh and 


pray—W. L. Watkinson. 


177. God—Finding 

An infant child was to have been 
baptized on Sunday morning. Word 
came Saturday evening that she was 
dying, with the urgent request that 
I hurry to the house and baptize her. 
Almost opposite my church—the 
Bushwick Avenue Congregational— 
a man stopped me to inquire the way 
to another minister’s house. I told 
him, but perceiving that I was a min- 
ister, as I wore my clerical vest, he 
said abruptly: “You'll do.” Think- 
ing it must be some ministerial func- 
tion that belonged legitimately to 
the other man, I suggested that he 
had better go to him. But grasping 
the sleeve of my coat, he said I 
would do just as well—he might miss 
the other man—he must see a min- — 
ister at once. “Well,” said I, “what 
is it, as I am in a great hurry?” 
“I’m looking for God,” he replied 
earnestly, ‘and I want you to help 
me find him. I have plenty of 
money, but that is more of a hin- 
drance than a help. Some time ago 
I promised my wife I would never 
drink again, but to-day I fell in with 
some old friends, and before I real- 
ized it, had taken several drinks. I 
want to quit, but know I cannot with- 
out the help of God, and you must 
help me find him. I am not going 
home to-night until I have found 
God, and also take a signed pledge 
to my wife that I will not drink 
again.” As he was slightly under 
the influence of drink, the Holy 
Spirit seemed to say to me, “Take 
him with you.” I did so, and on 
the way told him how I had buried 
little “Tootsie,” the older child, only 
ten days before, and now the only 
remaining child was dying. “I need 
help,” said I, “so you go as my 
friend and extend your sympathy to 
the heart-broken parents.” He did 





GOD 89 


so. Even before the little service 
began, he was weeping with the rest. 
In my prayer I asked God to bless 
the kind friend who had come with 
his sympathy and love, and to reveal 
himself to him. When we reached 
the street, he grasped my arm, and 
with quivering voice, and the tears 
still running down his face, said: 
“You needn’t talk to me now about 
finding God—I found him up there 
in that little room.” A later visit 
to his wife and children, and his 
faithfulness at church and prayer 
meeting, proved that he told the 
truth. 


178. God Hears 


A friend of mine said to a life- 
saver at Newport, R. I.: “How can 
you tell when anyone is in need of 
help when there are thousands of 
bathers on the beach and in the 
water making a perfect hub-bub of 
noises?” To which he answered: 
“No matter how great the noise and 
confusion, there has never been a 
single time when I could not dis- 
tinguish the cry of distress above 
them all. I can always tell it.” And 
that is exactly like God. In the 
midst of the babel and confusion he 
never fails to hear the soul that 
cries out to him for help amid the 
breakers and storms of life. 


179. God—Instructing 


“T need oil,” said a monk and 
planted an olive tree. “Lord,” he 
prayed, “it needs rain that its roots 
may drink, and spread out; send 
a shower.” And the Lord did so. 
“Lord,” he continued, “my tree needs 
sunshine,” and the sun shone, gild- 
ing the dripping clouds. “Now frost, 
Lord, that its wood may get 
hardened,” and behold, soon the little 
tree stood glittering with hoar-frost. 
But at the hour of the Angelus the 
tree died. 

Then the monk went to the cell of 
another to whom he told his strange 
experience. The latter said: “I also 


have planted a tree and it is doing 
very well. But I gave over my tree 
into the care of God. He, who made 
it, knows better than I what it needs. 
I prayed: ‘Lord, send what it needs, 
storm, sunshine, wind, rain or frost. 
You made it and can best take care 
Getta 


180. Beginning—God in the 


There was a famous professor 
once who was giving a lantern lec- 
ture to children about plants and 
flowers. He explained how the seeds 
became plants, how the plants be- 
came leaves and flowers, how the 
flowers developed seeds again. Then 
he went on to tell how all the dif- 
ferent parts of a plant were built 
up of tiny cells, and how all these 
cells were filled with a wonderful 
substance called protoplasm, a sub- 
stance which is contained in all liv- 
ing bodies and which makes them 
live and grow. Finally he said that 
no one knew what gave to proto- 
plasm its power of living and grow- 
ing. That was a closed door, and 
behind the door was unfathomable 
mystery. Then one of the children 
asked a question—‘‘Please, sir, does 
God live behind the door ?”—James 
Hastings. 


z8z. God in the Beginning 


John Newton had a valued friend 
who ignored the Bible and said that 
all things came by chance. 

They were both great students of 
astronomy, and so Newton devised a 
plan to make his friend feel ashamed 
of his “by chance” theory of crea- 
tion. He had made for him an 
astronomical globe by one of the best 
artists of London under his specific 
direction, and had it placed in his 
library, where his friend was to meet 
him on a certain day to talk over 
astronomical facts. 

The globe arrested his attention at 
once, as a wonderful production of 
intellect and art, and he exclaimed: 

“Why, Newton, where in the world 


90 GOD 


did you get that magical work of art 
and star knowledge?” 


“Oh,” said Newton, “I came into 


my library yesterday and here it was. 
It came entirely by chance, just to 
convince me of the truth of your 
theory of creation.” 

His friend saw the point at once 
—how impossible it was, and if so, 
how impossible that the heavens 
which declare the glory of God could 
have come by chance, if this human 
picture of them could only come 
by the design of a scholar and the 
expert work of the artist who made 
it. Asa result he became an earnest 
Christian. 


182. God—Need of 

Bishop Edwin H. Hughes, in a 
sermon I was privileged to hear, re- 
lated an incident in his early experi- 
ence as a pastor, when he had been 
led to make a special study of the 
needs of his own people in the way 
of comfort. He found only two 
families in which there was not re- 
vealed some deep sorrow. He pre- 
pared a sermon with a message of 
comfort. After the service the first 
one to meet him and thank him was 
a man who said that the sermon 
must have been meant for him, as 
there was a grief in his family of 
which he had never told. Then an- 
other man met him and said prac- 
tically the same thing. The singular 
circumstance was that these two men 
were the heads of the two families 
supposed to be exempt from any 
deep sorrow.—D. H. Strong. 


183. God—Troubling 


Dr. Adam Clarke, the great com- 
mentator, was a slow worker, and 
he could only produce his wealth of 
literary treasures by long and patient 
toil. He therefore made it his 
custom to rise early every morning. 
A young preacher, anxious to emu- 
late the distinguished doctor, asked 
him one day how he managed’ it. 
“Do you pray about it?” he inquired. 


“No,” the doctor quietly answered, 
“T get up.” Mr. Moody used to tell 
how once he came upon a group of 
wealthy American Christians pray- 
ing for the removal of a debt of 
five hundred dollars on their church 
building. “Gentlemen,” said Mr. 
Moody in his incisive way, “I don't 
think if I were you, I should trouble 
the Lord in this matter.” 


184. God Understands 

When I saw your “sky-scrapers” 
in New York for the first time, I 
was interested not in the beauty of 
them, but in their construction, for 
I learned that each part is tested to 
a hair’s breadth that it may properly 
bear its burden. That is the way 
our Father deals with us. He will 
make the burden no greater than it 
ought to be. “He knoweth our 
frame; he remembereth that we are 
dust.” 


185. God—Without 

Upon a sundial in Tunbridge 
Wells are these words: “You can 
waste me, but you cannot stop me.” 
“Time is slowly Dut surely hurrying 
us all to eternity.” Men are drifting 
on, on, on, blind-folded, walking in 
their sleep to a never-ending eternity, 
whilst God is calling, “Turn ye, turn 
ye, why will ye die?” A young fel- 
low who had lived a very careless 
life lay dying. Some of his infidel 
companions stood around the bed. 
“Read me something out of the 
Bible,” said he. “Nonsense, Davie,” 


was the reply; “that’s an old 
woman’s book!” “Hold on, Davie 
lad, hold on.” “Ah,” cried the poor 


dying lad, “I’d be glad indeed to hold 
on, but I’ve got nothing to hold on 
Lod: 


186. God’s Command 


Alexander McKenzie, of Cam- 
bridge, was for many years the 
honored and useful president of the 
Boston Seamen’s Friend Society. In 
one of his sermons he gave this bit 


GOD 91 


of personal history: ““My father was 
a sailor. I was a boy when he came 
back from a three years’ voyage. 
The ship had been signaled from far 
away and a friendly officer of the 
customs let me go down in his boat 
to meet her. As we drew near the 
ship I stood in the bow and at 
length could see my father leaning 
over the side of the ship watching 
our boat. When we came near 
enough I waved my cap. He saw 
me and called out to one of the 
men, ‘Throw a rope to my boy.’ The 
sailor threw the rope and in a few 
moments the boy was in his father’s 
arms. It was a simple thing, but 
many a time since have I heard that 
voice, that command which had be- 
come entreaty, and it has become the 
voice of the Father in heaven watch- 
ing some child of his who needed 
to be brought near to him. I have 
heard the word and loved it and 
tried to make it God’s word to me 
and the inspiration of my life. 
‘Throw a rope to my boy.’” 


187. God’s Command 


Israel moved in safety because at 
God’s command; the Egyptians go- 
ing over the same ground, were de- 
stroyed because they were not with 
God. No place is so safe as the 
place of danger if we are there at 
God’s command. At the battle of 
Waterloo it is said that a rich Brus- 
sels merchant found his way to the 
headquarters of the Duke of Well- 
ington and asked him if he were 
not afraid of his life with all the 
shot and shell flying around him. 
“You may well be afraid,” replied 
the Duke, “for you have no business 
here; but I am doing my duty.”— 
From “The Secret of Power for 
Daily Living.” 


188. God’s Concealments 

God taught Paul, and us by Paul, 
that you can have a high old time 
on a very low limit of expenditure. 
The old Latin word for travelers’ 


baggage, “impedimenta,’ has no 
hypocrisy about it and the more im- 
pediments you have about you the 
more is your apostolic advance im- 
peded. 

Then take the boon of traveling 
without a tent. This means that 
all night you are on your back with 
only the stars as nearest neighbors 
in the upper flat. God merely hides 
a world in order to unveil a uni- 
verse. This, then, is where the logic 
of your tentless travel lands you. 

Why draw the soul’s curtains and 
light up artificially when all the 
while God is calling you out and up 
among the stars. We talk a lot 
about considering matters and for- 
get that this very word merely means, 
in Latin, to look up at the stars (con, 
with sideris, with the stars). One 
of the red republicans boasted to a 
peasant of France that they were 
going to wipe God out of the coun. 
try. Said this 1793 fanatic, “We are 
going to pull down your steeples, and 
your churches, all that recalls the 
superstitions of past ages, all that 
reminds man of even the idea of 
God.” “Citizens,” replied the good 
old yokel, ‘then pull down the stars.” 
—Dan Crawford. 


189. God’s Gift Undervalued 


Some years since the managers of 
a Young Men’s Christian Associa- 
tion missed a great opportunity by 
not knowing the value of a certain 
painting. A friend of the institu- 
tion had given a picture for the walls 
of the building, not having suitable 
room for it in his own home. One 
day he offered to sell it to them, ask- 
ing fifty dollars for it. When they 
declined the offer he said they might 
have it for twenty-five dollars; but 
they still declined to purchase it. 
Not long afterwards he died. In 
disposing of the estate his executors 
took the picture from the building 
and sent it to a picture-mart. There 
it was soon recognized as the work 
of a master, and finally identified. 


92 GOD 


Thirty-five thousand dollars was 
offered for it, and later fifteen thou- 
sand more. 
picture once offered for twenty-five 
dollars ! 

How forcibly that illustrates the 
way men underestimate the value of 
religion. They think it is good for 
the low, the poor, the weak, the 
dying, not realizing that it is needful 
to live by, that it is the greatest need 
of man and the most valuable gift 
of God. 


God’s Goodness Waits 
for Men 


Because colliers live in the bowels 
of the earth and sometimes do not 
see the sun rise or set for weeks and 
months together, or because im- 
prisoned men in dungeons do not 
witness the changes of the seasons, 
does it follow that there is no rising 
of the sun, or that there is neither 
spring nor summer for the human 
family? If one avoids the light of 
the sun, shuts himself out from it, 
he may miss it, but it is waiting for 
him: so is God’s goodness.—H. W. 
Beecher. 


190. 


191. God’s Kingdom Coming 


“Let those who think Christianity 
is a spent force ponder the follow- 
ing: When Carey, the first Protes- 
tant missionary of the world, went 
to India, the whole of nominal Chris- 
tians in the world was about 200,- 
000,000. Now there are about 500,- 
000,000. When he, in the eighteenth 
century, went out from Christendom 
as a missionary to the dark world 
of heathendom, the population of 
the world was about one thousand 
millions. It is now supposed to be 
about fifteen hundred millions, which 
is only another way of saying that 
while the population of the world 
has increased during this period 50 
per cent, Christianity has increased 
150 per cent, and the ratio shows that 
the cause of Christ advanced more 
within the past 25 years than it did 


Fifty thousand for a. 


in the 75 years preceding. Our God 
is marching on.” 


192. God’s Light 

Elihu Burritt tells the story of a 
drover in America who was one day 
taking a herd of cattle through a 
long dark wooden tunnel. Here and 
there the knots had dropped out of 
the timber and rays of light shot 
across the tunnel. Directly the ani- 
mals began to shy. They were filled 
with consternation; they began to 
leap the golden bars, and they leaped 
them in agony until they came out 
at the end of the tunnel all blood 
and foam. Is not that a picture of 
ourselves? We make a hurdle race 
of what ought to be a path of con- 
fidence and blessing. What is par- 
donable in the creature is unpardon- 
able in us, who know that God makes 
all things to work together for good 
to those who love him—J. A. Clark. 


193. Ownership—God’s 


There is a story of a small boy 
who spent many hours making a toy 
boat. After it was finished, he used 
to play with it and float it down the 
stream, but one day it got away from 
him, and was carried down the river 
and far out of his sight. He grieved 
much over the loss of his precious 
boat. One day, however, in the 
window of a pawn shop in London, 
the boy saw the boat he had made 
long before. He went in and told 
the storekeeper that it was his boat 
he had there in the window. The 
man replied that it was now in his 
possession, and that if he wanted the 
boat, he would have to pay two 
dollars and seventy-five cents to re- 
deem it. So the boy worked hard 
for several days, and at last had the 
money to buy back his boat. He 
again went to the pawn shop keeper, 
and gave him the money, and this 
time came away with the beloved 
boat again in his possession. As he 
carried it away with him, he held it 
close to him, and said, “Little boat, 


GOD 93 


you are twice mine. In the first 
place I made you, and in the second 
place I redeemed you.” 


194. God’s Promises Precious 


“Does your son in America 
never send you any money?” was 
asked of a poverty-stricken old 
Swedish woman. “Never!” was the 
bitter answer. “He writes often and 
speaks of sending money, but never 
a bit have I seen from him. I am 
getting old and poor and soon I must 
die or go to the poorhouse. Yet he 
is rich and prosperous. Such is the 
ingratitude of children!” 

“Ts there never anything in the 
letters?” asked the persistent visitor. 

“Oh, yes, he always sends pic- 
tures; but I don’t need pictures; I 
need money.” 

“Have you saved those pictures?” 

“They are all pasted on the wall in 
my bedroom. Would you like to see 
them?” 

“Certainly,” answered the visitor. 
When she looked into the bare little 
room she saw pasted on the walls a 
small fortune in American paper 
money. 

The Bible is full of pictures of 
saints and beautiful poetry, but it 
has much more. To the believing 
child of God these are drafts on 
God’s bank to be honored in the time 
of need. Every promise is a “Pay 
bearer on demand” of real practical 
value if we have faith to present it 
at God’s bank. But like the peasant 
woman, we call it a picture gallery 
and inveigh upon God’s lack of care 
for us. 


195. Providence—God’s 

A tiny girl was taking a long 
journey and in the course of the 
day her train was obliged to cross 
a number of rivers. The water seen 
in advance always awakened doubts 
and fears in the child. She did not 
understand how it could safely be 
crossed. As they drew near the 
river, however, a bridge appeared, 


and furnished the way over. Several 
times the same thing happened, and 
finally the child leaned back with a 
long breath of relief and confidence: 
“Somebody has put bridges for us 
all the way!” she said in trusting 
content. That is how we find it in 
life, God has built bridges for us 
all the way. 

Easter is the way across the dark 
river of death. Because Jesus lives 
we shall live also. 


196. Writing—God’s 

A daring aviator has been start- 
ling Chicagoans by writing on the 
sky the name of a certain cigarette 
in smoke letters half a mile across. 
The entire city stopped and gazed 
gapingly heavenward. One little tot 
looking at the growing letters ex- 
claimed, “It’s God!” His compan- 
ion retorted: “Naw; if it was God 
he wouldn’t be advertising a ciga- 
rette.’—The Christian Advocate. 


197. Gods—False 


At the grave of Nedzumi Kozo 
(a famous pickpocket) it is said that 
incense is always found burning. 
Who offers that incense? Why, all 
the pickpockets of the city of Tokyo 
burn incense there. He is the god of 
the pickpockets. When I was 
traveling in the southern part of the 
island of Kyushu one day I found 
in a certain temple a great many 
flags and banners flying. I asked the 
people of the place what kind of god 
was in this temple—‘I see such a 
lot of flags and banners flying, it 
certainly must be a very famous 
god.” The man told me, “It is the 
god of gamblers.” All these flags 
and banners were offered by the 
gamblers from all parts of the coun- 
try. And he said, moreover, “If 
you have faith in this god you will 
win in all games, whether in gam- 
bling or stock speculation, or even in 
wrestling and fighting.” 

And now, my friends, what do you 
think about these gods? Do you 


94 


think there are such gods as a god 
of thieves, a god of pickpockets, a 
god of gamblers? It is fearful even 
to think of such things. It would 
indeed be intolerable if such gods 
really existed in this world. No, no, 
there can never be such gods in this 
world.—From the Three-hour Ser- 
mon, by Kanamori. 


198 Hymn 

My God, I love thee, not because 
I hope for heaven thereby; 

Nor because they who love thee not 
Must burn eternally. 


Thou, O my Jesus, thou didst me 
Upon the cross embrace; 
For me didst bear the nails and 
spear, 
And manifold disgrace; 


And griefs and torments number- 
less ; 
And sweat of agony; 
E’en death itself,—and all for one 
Who was thine enemy. 


Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ! 
Should I not love thee well; 

Not for the sake of winning heaven, 
Or of escaping hell: 


Not with the hope of gaining aught; 
Not seeking a reward; 

But as thyself hast loved me, 
Oh, ever-loving Lord! 


E’en so I love thee, and will love 
And in thy praise will sing; 
Solely because thou art my God, 
And my eternal King. 
—St. Francis Xavier, 1550. 


199. Mercy—Long-Suffering 


When Robert Ingersoll was lectur- 
ing, he once took out his watch and 
said, “I will give God five minutes 
to strike me dead for the things I 
have said.” The minutes ticked off 
as he held the watch and waited. At 
about four and a half minutes some 
women began to faint, but nothing 
happened. When the five minutes 
were up, he shut his watch and put it 


GOD 


in his pocket. That story reached 
the ears of Doctor Parker. When 
the great preacher heard it, he said, 
“And did the gentleman think he 
could exhaust the patience of the 
Eternal God in five minutes?” 


200. Peace With God 


“Being justified by faith, we have 
peace with God;—that is, we enter 
into the state of peace immediately. 
He is a rich man who has a thou- 
sand acres of corn in the ground, as 
well as he who has so much in his 
barn or the money in his purse. So 
Christians have rest and peace in the 
seed of it when they have it not in 
the fruit; they have it in the promise 
when they have it not in the posses- 
sion. All believers have the promise 
of rest and peace, and we know that 
the truth and faithfulness of God 
stand engaged to make good every 
line and word of the promise to 
them. So that though they have not 
a full and clear actual sense and 
feeling of rest, they are, neverthe- 
less, by faith come into the state of 
rest.” —Flavel. 


20r. Praising God 


One of the first acts performed by 
George III, after his accession to 
the throne, was to issue an order 
prohibiting any of the clergy who 
should be called to preach before 
him from paying him any compli- 


ment in their discourses. His 
Majesty was led to this from 


the fulsome adulation which Dr. 
Thomas Wilson, prebendary of West- 
minster, thought proper to’ deliver 
in the Chapel-Royal, and for which, 
instead of thanks, he received from 
his royal auditor a pointed repri- 
mand, His Majesty observing “that 
he came to chapel to hear the praises 
of God, and not his own.”—Clerical 
Anecdotes. 


202. Promise—-Claiming God’s 
On the banks of the Kuruman, in 


removed it 


GRACE 


the density of African heathenism, 
Robert and Mary Moffat toiled on 
for ten years without a single con- 
vert. Four hundred miles beyond 
the frontier of civilization, alone in 
the midst of savages, their faith 
never wavered. At a time when 
there was “no glimmer of dawn” a 
letter was received from a friend in 
far-off England, asking if there was 
anything of use which could be sent. 
The significant answer of Mary 
Moffat was: “Send us a communion 
service; we shall want it some day.” 
It came three years later, the day 
before the first converts were bap- 
tized —Josiah Strong in “The Next 
Great Awakening.” 


203. Sacrifice for God 


When the French were invading 
Russia at the beginning of the last 
century, they arrived at a small 
village. All the inhabitants had fled 
save one  peasant—a woodman, 
judging from the axe in his belt. 
The officer in command of the 
French troops ordered the man to 
be shot. The soldiers raised their 
muskets and prepared to fire, but 
the peasant coolly looked down the 
barrels of the guns, and never 
flinched. The officer was so struck 
with the man’s courage that he com- 
manded the firing party to lower 


their muskets and spare the 
prisoner’s life. “But,” said he, “we 
shall put a mark upon him.” They 


made a branding iron red hot and 
placed it on his hand. When they 
something was left 
there. “What is that?” asked the 
woodman. “That,” said the officer, 
“is an ‘N’ for Napoleon. You belong 
to him now.” The man _ turned, 
placed the branded hand on a solid 
place, took his axe from his belt, and 
with one stroke severed his hand 
from his arm. “There now,” cried 
he, “there is not one bit of me that 
does not belong to the Czar.” That 
man was truly loyal. He would 
rather lose his hand than be branded 


95 


a traitor. Are we as true to God?— 
Expository Times. 


204. The Indwelling God 


Go not, my soul, in search of Him; 
Thou wilt not find Him there— 

Or in the depths of shadow dim, 
Or heights of upper air. 


For not in far-off realm of space 
The spirit hath its throne; 

In every heart it findeth place 
And waiteth to be known. 


Thought answereth alone to thought 
And soul with soul hath kin; 

For outward God he findeth not, 
Who finds not God within. 


And if the vision come to thee 
Revealed by inward sign, 
Earth will be full of Deity 
And with his glory shine! 
—Frederick Lucian Hosmer. 


GRACE 


205. Grace—Door of God’s 


One warm summer afternoon, a 
bird flew through the open door into 
a chapel, where divine service was 
being conducted. Full of fear it 
flew backward and forward near the 
ceiling and against the windows, 
vainly seeking a way out into the 
sunshine. In one of the pews sat a 
lady, who observed the bird, while 
thinking how foolish it was, not to 
fly out through the open door into 
liberty. At last the bird’s strength 
being gone, it rested a moment on 
one of the rafters. Then seeing the 
open door, it flew out into the sun- 
shine, venting its joy in a song. 

Then the lady who had _ been 
watching the little bird thought to 
herself: “Am I not acting as fool- 
ish as I thought the bird was? How 
long have I been struggling under 
the burden of my sin in the vain 
endeavor to get free and all the 
while the door of God’s grace has 
been wide open?” Then and there 
the decision was formed to enter in. 


96 


“T am the Way,” says Jesus, “no 
man cometh unto the Father, but by 
me.” 


206. Grace—Growing In 


“Every time I receive notice from 
a certain insurance company that a 
premium is due a card is inclosed 
containing this inquiry: ‘Are you 
carrying all the insurance you 
should for the protection of your 
family?’ It reminds me to ask Chris- 
tians this question: ‘Are you increas- 
ing your interest in the Kingdom of 
Christ?’ ” 


207. Grace—Growth in 


There is a Chinese fable about a 
man who, in order to make his gar- 
den produce faster, went over it and 
pulled his plants a little further 
through the ground. He was rejoic- 
ing in his foresight only to find that 
his plants were dead. It takes time 
to be holy. You can’t do it on 
toadstool principles. 


208. Grace—Miracle of 

His power is proved every day. 
“Bowery Bums,” who have lost 
every sign of spiritual life, become 
living sons of God. Africans and 
Hindus who have practiced every 
form of vice become new men of 
pure life and engage in Christlike 
service. 

Africaner, the notorious Hottentot 
chief, was the terror of the whole 
country. He carried on a cruel and 
constant warfare with his neighbors, 
stealing cattle, burning kraals, cap- 
turing women and children and kill- 
ing his enemies. When Robert 
Moffat, as a messenger from the 
Prince of Life, started for Afri- 
caner’s kraal, friends warned him 
that the savage monster would make 
a drum-head of his skin and a drink- 
ing-cup of his skull; that no power 
could change such a savage. But 
Moffat went to the chief and spoke 
to him the word of life. It entered 
the heathen heart and Africaner 


GRACE 


lived. He left the environment of 
death, was loosened from the bands 
of the grave, and became a Chris- 
tian chief. When a Dutch farmer, 
whose uncle Africaner had killed, 
saw the converted Hottentot he ex- 
claimed: “OQ God, what cannot thy 


grace do! What a miracle of thy 
power !” 
209. Grace—Saved by 


Some years after Hunt’s death an 
infidel English earl visited Fiji. He 
knew what it had been, he saw what 
it was, but he did not believe in God, 
who had changed it. He said to an 
old Fijian chief who looked very 
civilized and respectable: 

“You are a great chief, and it is a 


pity you have been so foolish as to — 


listen to the missionaries, who came 
only to get rich among you. No 
one, nowadays, believes in that old 
book which is called the Bible; 
neither do men listen to that story 
about Jesus Christ. 


that you are so foolish.” 

The old chief’s eyes flashed, and 
he answered: 
“Do you 
yonder? In that oven we roasted 
human bodies for our great feasts. 
If it had not been for these good 
missionaries, and for that old book, 
and for Jesus Christ, who changed 
us from savages into God’s children, 
you would be killed and roasted in 
yonder oven, and we would feed on 

your body in no time.”’—Tidings. 


210. Grace—Saving 


A farmer came to a pastor, say- 
ing, “I have here a thank-offering to 
the Lord,’ and handed him a gold 
piece. “It is just two years since 
my son fell in the battle of St. 
Privat,” he added in explanation. 
“And for that you bring a thank- 
offering?” exclaimed the pastor. 
“Ves,” replied the man with tear- 


People know — 
better now and I am sorry for you © 


see that native oven © 


dimmed eyes, “for I know he died 


a saved man. In a letter he wrote 


Pry ES * 


GRATITUDE 97 


us the night before the battle he 
assured us of his faith in Christ and 
of the forgiveness of his sins. 
Therefore I know that this our son 
is not lost to us, but that sometime 
we will go to him. Should I not 
be thankful for that?” 


21zr. Grace—Suficient 


A man in Chicago was one day 
watering his lawn, a precious bit 
of grass plot six by ten feet. The 
grass had withered under the hot 
sun of the day, and with hose in 
hand he proceeded to quench its 
thirst. The hydrant was opened but 
the water refused to flow. What 
could be the matter—was there no 
water in the lake? Not that, for 
the water of the great lakes washes 
the shore at the city’s front. Was 
there no water in the main? Yes, 
there was a seven-foot main filled 
with a high pressure. Then why did 
he get no water? Just around the 
corner of the house his little boy at 
play had pulled down a heavy iron 
bar which was leaning against the 
house and it fell across the hose and 
cut off the flow. That is why he 
had no water. So it is with many a 
life. The fountains of living water 
are flowing free, but some sin has 
cut off the flow and it is like a 
barren desert—O. A. Newlin. 


212. Grace—Suficient 


A great preacher was asked if he 
had grace enough to be a martyr; he 
replied, “No! What do I want with 
a martyr’s grace now? If I am ever 
called to be a martyr, then a martyr’s 
grace will be given me. What I need 
now is grace for my present circum- 
stances.” Even so. Whatever is 
brought forth in the way of trial will 
find God’s grace brought forth to 
meet it; but let us live on God’s 
strength moment by moment, so that 
“As our day is so shall our strength 
be.” And he has said, “My grace is 
sufficient for thee.” 


213. Transforming Grace 


Chemistry has performed many 
wonderful feats of transformation. 
What is more black and dirty and 
unpromising than coal-tar, yet it has 
been changed into the most beautiful 
and useful colors? But the grace of 
God has wrought still more marvel- 
ous wonders. What could be more 
filthy and unpromising than a God- 
hating, blaspheming sinner, steeped 
as in a cesspool of iniquity, and pos- 
sessed by the spirit of the Devil? 
Yet the grace of God, as by a spir- 
itual chemistry, has transformed 
such depraved and hopeless char- 
acters into the most beautiful and 
useful lives. “By grace are ye 
saved” (Eph. 2: 5).—James Smith. 


GRATITUDE . 


214. Gratitude 


There was a man in Boston (I 
know not whether he lives yet,—yes, 
he lives, but I know not whether 
he lives in this world) who, though 
not rich, was accustomed to go into 
the courts of justice every morning 
to give bail for culprits that had no 
friends; and it was his testimony 
that of all those for whom he gave 
bail, not one betrayed him,—not one 
left him in the lurch. And do you 
suppose that those creatures whom 
Christ has helped, and whom he has 
given a hope of eternal salvation, 
would turn against him, their best 
friend, and the one to whom they 
are indebted for their choicest bless- 
ings? Would that be human nature? 
Is there anything on God’s earth 
like gratitude to inspire a soul to act 
in the right direction?—H. W. 
Beecher. 


215. Gratitude a Debt 

The “coat of arms” of the Fitz- 
gerald family of Ireland is the figure 
of : baboon carrying a baby, and 
underneath the Latin motto, “Non 


38 GRATITUDE 


immemer beneficii.” The story con- 
nected with this strange device is 
interesting. Long ago one of the 


family was away at the wars, and © 


had left his household in charge of 
one or two old retainers and the 
women servants. Suddenly there 
came an alarm of the enemy, and all 
fled, forgetful of the little baby, the 
heir of the house. A pet baboon 
noticed the omission, ran to the 
cradle, caught up the child, and ran 
with him to the top of the abbey 
steeple, holding him out for the peo- 
ple to see. The servants were all in 
terror, but the baboon carried the 
child safely to the ground. When 
the child’s father returned, he felt 
that he owed a debt of gratitude to 
the dumb beast that had saved the 
heir of his house; and he was not 
ashamed to set the monkey in the 
center of his knightly shield, and 
place beneath the motto, “Not un- 
mindful of his kindness.” We should 
show that we recognize our debt of 
gratitude to the Giver of the divine 
benefits. 


216. Gratitude—Unexpressed 


The Northwestern University at 
Evanston, Iil., had for many years 
a volunteer life-saving crew among 
its students which became famous. 
On September 8, 1860, the Lady 
Elgin, a crowded passenger steamer, 
foundered off the shore of Lake 
Michigan just above Evanston. One 
‘of the students gathered on the 
shore, Edward W. Spencer, a stu- 
dent in Garrett Biblical Institute, saw 
a woman clinging to some wreckage 
far out in the breakers. He threw 
off his coat and swam out through 
the heavy waves, succeeding in get- 
ting her back to the land in safety. 
Sixteen times during that day did 
young Spencer brave those fierce 
waves, rescuing seventeen persons. 
Then he collapsed in a delirium of 
exhaustion. 

While tossing in. delirium that 
night he cried over and over to his 


brother, “Did I do my best? O, I 
am afraid I did not do my best!” 
When his brother tried to quiet him 
by saying, “You saved seventeen 
lives,” he would reply, “O, if I 
could only have saved one more!” 

Ned Spencer slowly recovered 
from the exposure and exertion of 
that day, but never completely. 
With broken health he lived quietly, 
unable to enter upon his chosen life- 
work of the ministry, but exempli- 
fying the teachings of Jesus Christ 
in his secluded life. He died last 
February in California, aged eighty- 
one. 

In a notice of his death one paper 
said that not one of these seventeen 


rescued persons ever came to thank 


him. He risked his life and gave up 
his life hopes for them without one 
word of appreciation being returned. 

This seemed such rank ingrati- 
tude that we wrote to Mrs. Spencer 
to ask if the paragraph were true. 
She replied: “The statement is true. 
Mr. Spencer never received any 
thanks from anybody he succeeded 
in saving, nor any recognition from 
any one of them.” She adds that the 
general confusion, the exhaustion 
of the rescued as well as of the 
rescuer, were probably responsible. 
“My husband always took this view 
of the situation and never manifested 
any feeling of resentment, and I am 
sure he felt none. He did his best 
with no thought of reward or appre- 
ciation.” 

When one recalls that his supreme 
effort meant a shattered life—at least 
physically and in plans—it seems that 
this attitude is more heroic than was 
the great exertion of his youth. 


217. Moral Stumbling Blocks 


One of the most useful members 
of a certain church is a physician. 
He has been a member for only a 
few years. By his devotion he seems 
to be doing his best to make up for 
lost time. They were having a real 
revival in his town. And the town 


a a ee 


HEAVEN 99 


had been in great need of it. The 
doctor was a moral man of most 
excellent habits. He had tried to be 
public-spirited. Like Horace Bush- 
nell, he was uneasy that he was not 
a positive force in the great cam- 
paign. He was interested in a great 
group of young men. It came to 
him that one of the excuses they 
made for their lack of decision for 
Christ was that so excellent a man 
as the physician did not call himself 
a Christian. He reviewed the situa- 
tion. Back of him was a long line 
of devoted and conscientious prin- 
ciples. What was he giving in re- 
turn? Nothing. And, more, he was 
a stumbling-block in the way of 
others doing their duty. The Spirit 
of Truth was leading him and he 
became obedient to the vision. He 
gave himself in a mighty consecra- 
tion, and his life is now an epistle 
known and read of all men. He 
is doing his best to pay his debt ef 
loving gratitude. 


218. Wounds—Pleading 


The story is told of an old soldier 
down in Georgia who decided to 
become a candidate for the office of 
justice of the peace. Unaccustomed 
to political campaigning and being 
altogether deficient in the art of 
public speaking it soon became evi- 
dent that he was no match at all for 
a younger opponent who was both 
a politician and a glib talker. One 
evening just prior to the election the 
old soldier sat on the platform at a 
great mass meeting. Suddenly one 
of the speakers of the occasion who 
was presenting the claims of the old 
soldier for election, stepped over to 
his side and pointing to the sleeve- 
less arm and placing his hand upon 
a great scar that marked the 
veteran’s face, he exclaimed: “Ladies 
and gentlemen, behold!  Pickett’s 
charge at Gettysburg!” Instantly 
the enthusiasm of the great crowd 
rose like a great tidal wave and with 
cheer on cheer they greeted and ap- 


plauded the old man whose wounds 
bore such eloquent tokens of his 
bravery and patriotism, and a few 
days later they sent him into office 
beneath an avalanche of votes. In- 
finitely eloquent of love, humiliation 
and sacrifice are the wounds of Jesus 
Christ. Truly he is worthy to re- 


ceive the homage of every heart and 
life. 


Five bleeding wounds he bears, 
Received on Calvary; 
They pour effectual prayers, 
They strongly plead for me: 
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry 
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die.” 


HEAVEN 


219. Brother—Coming of a 


I remember when, nine years ago, 
in Boston, a great tabernacle, hold- 
ing 8,000 people, was built for Mr. 
Moody. He held a month’s servy- 
ices in it, during which the building 
was full; but at the last meeting it 
was so crowded that it was over- 
filled an hour before the service. 
Every door was shut, except the 
private door behind, by which only 
the workers had access. Many peo- 
ple crowded round pressing to get 
in, but were restrained by a chain of 
policemen. There were members of 
the State Council, ladies in their silks 
and jewels, and aldermen of the City 
Council; but to the entreaties of 
each and all the uniform reply was 
given that they could not be admitted. 
One gentleman came up, and the 
policeman said, “No, sir; you cannot 
come in.” He said, “I came here 
for half a day only; I have finished 
my business, and have come to hear 
Mr. Moody.” He gave his card— 
he was a governor of a New Eng- 
land State; but the policeman was 
unable to let him in, and said, “Even 
were you allowed to pass, there is no 
room for you inside; but my orders 
are strict.” Just then I saw an- 


100 


other man come up. He was a coun- 
tryman. Neither his hair nor beard 
had been trimmed by a city barber. 
His hands were callous with toil. 
He was a small man. Here, thought 
I, a governor has been refused, and 
he tries to get in. “I must come in,” 
he said. The policeman pushed him 
aside. “But,” he said, “would you 
go and tell my brother William that 
his brother George wants to come 
in?’ I went in; they were singing 
the hymn before the address when I 
told Mr. Moody. Quick as a flash 
he said, ‘“My brother George! Let 
him in at once. Make way there for 
my brother George.” And as there 
was no seat for him, Mr. Moody 
took him into the pulpit and placed 
him in his own seat. And so at the 
last great day, when the kings and 
great ones of the earth come there, 
but are not allowed to enter, when 
one of the least of God’s children 
comes up, he will just say, “Will 
you tell my Brother that one of His 
brethren is outside and wants to 
come in?” And then he is let in at 
once and seated on the throne— 
George F. Pentecost. 


220. Graves and Tunnels 


When they buried the old 
Pharaohs in Egypt, they built tunnels 
into the pyramids, through which to 
take their mummied kings, but none 
on the other side of the mausoleum 
for their exit. 

The grave without Christ is an 
entrance into darkness and oblivion. 
With him it is an entrance into ever- 
lasting life. “To-day shalt thou be 
with me in paradise.” 

When the town burier took down 
the carcasses of those thieves who 
were crucified with Jesus, and 
pitched them into holes in the pot- 
ter’s field, he understood that there 
was only one opening into the hole. 
Mostly there isn’t another, to holes 
in the ground. Just the one that 
opens upward. But after Jesus spake 
those words to the thief at his side, 


HEAVEN 


his grave opened downwards. That’s 
the difference that Jesus’ resurrec- 
tion makes to the world. That’s 
what it means to us. We go out to 
the family plot in the cemetery, and 
see the grave that was opened yes- 
terday all closed and sodded over. 

“How am I ever going to behold 
my loved one again? He is shut off 
from me. She is hidden forever 
from my sight.” 

But you remember having read 
stories of old colonial houses that 
were provided with a secret exit for 
use in case of Indian attacks. Those 
inside, when pressed too hard, could 
flee by an underground passage to 
the sea or the river, and escape. The 
old Spanish mission in San Diego 
had such a passage which I have 
seen, leading to a well, by which all 
escaped. 

So the resurrection of Christ 
means that the grave on which you 
gaze so sadly is open at the bottom, 
and leads straight to the throne of 
God.—John F. Cowan. 


22z. Heaven—Arriving In 


St. Pierre in one of his books tells 
of a French ship which had been 
beating about for months amid 
storms in the southern seas. One 
morning land was cried from the 
masthead. Passengers and crew 
gathered on deck, awaiting in sus- 
pense the unveiling of the coming 
shore. Vague outlines only were 
seen, so vague that the uncertainty 
almost broke the hearts of the 
watchers. Was it land? If so, what 
land? Could it be France? Was 
it indeed France? Or was it some 
strange country? Nearer and nearer 
they came. Clearer and more dis- 
tinct became the outlines. After 
some hours, hours that seemed days, 
the lookout cried, “France! France! 
It is France!” The joy of the ship’s 
company knew no bounds. They 
were indeed home after all their 
wanderings and all their dangers and 
fears. 


HEAVEN 


So will it be with us, when, 
through the mists of that sea which 
we call death, we approach the 
shores of eternal life. After the 
dimness of dying, our eyes shall open 
to behold the banks of the celestial 
land. Then the shout will be, not 
“France! It is France!” but 
“Heaven! Heaven! It is Heaven!” 
The storms will all be past. We 
shall be in glory. Then we shall 
have life in all its fullness. Then 
we shall be at home.—J. R. Miller. 


222. Heaven—A Secular 


The priest had delivered an elo- 
quent sermon on the Judgment Day. 
At the close of the service a worthy 
Irishman in his congregation sought 
him out, much troubled in mind. 

“Father, do ye mane that every- 
body will be there on the Judgment 
Day?” 

ced SAN AE eed 

“Brian Boru and Oliver Crom- 
well?” 

“Ves,” 

“The Dublin men and the Orange- 
men ?” 

“Ves,” 

“And the A. O. H. and the A. P. 
A.’s 2” 

“Yes, they will all be there, ac- 
cording to my understanding.” 

“Well, Father,” -said the ques- 
tioner, “it’s my opinion that there'll 
be very little judgin’ done the first 
day.” 


223. Heaven—Awaking in 


Bishop Quayle tells, says Rev. E. 
W. Caswell, of a little girl, Edith, 
who one evening wanted to sit up 
with the family while they were 
visiting with the bishop. The little 
one, becoming very sleepy, her 
mother begged her to retire to her 
room. But she pleaded to remain, 
so delighted was she with the bishop. 
Finally, she fell asleep in her 
mother’s arms and was gently car- 
ried up the stairs to her bed without 
awaking. She did not know she was 


101 


in the upper room till she opened 
her eyes in the morning. So Enoch 
visited with God one day and was 
not, for God took him, carried him 
away in everlasting arms. What a 
delightful way to refer to death! 

So we might say of our loved 
ones, carried by angels, or in the 
arms of Jesus, into the heavenly 
mansion. They fell asleep in Jesus 
and did not know they were in the 
upper room till they awoke in the 
morning. 

This is our resurrection hope. 
This is what Easter morning means. 
—H. 


224. Heaven Challenged 


There was an infidel soldier of the 
Middle Ages who hated the Bible 
and all sacred things. He grew so 
fierce and mad in his defiance that 
he determined to test the power of 
the Christians’ God. So he went 
out into a field, armed as if for 
battle. He threw his glove down on 
the ground as a challenge. Then he 
looked up into the heavens and 
angrily cried: “God, if there be a 
God, I defy thee here and now to 
mortal combat. If thou indeed art, 
put forth thy power of which thy 
pretended priests make such a boast.” 
As he spoke he saw a piece of paper 
fluttering in the air just above his 
head. It fell at his feet. He took 
it up, and on it read these words: 
“God is love.” This was the mes- 
sage that came wafted down on the 
still air, in the angels’ song, that 
night when Christ was born—J. R. 
Miller. 


225. Heaven—Clearer View of 


Was it not a pretty thought, that 
of the gay young Southern girl danc- 
ing with a sort of ecstasy among the 
falling leaves, whose brilliancy she 
had never seen in her sea-coast 
home? To one near her, saddening 
over their fall, she said, “Just think 
how much more room it gives you 
to see the beautiful blue sky be- 


102 


yond!” Is it not true that, as our 
little joys and pleasures and earth’s 
many lovely things fade and pass, 
they open spaces for us in which to 
see God’s heaven beyond ?—Christian 
Union. 


226. Foregleams of 


Let us not forget that every day 
we are helping to make our own 
heaven. A few years ago it was our 
privilege to take a trip to Europe 
and the Orient. Among the pas- 
sengers on our cruise were a bride 
and groom. They had been married 
just before the vessel set sail and 
seemed exceedingly happy in their 
experiences. But this we noticed 
that at every port we entered, and 
in all the cities, they were buying 
things and sending them back to 
America—beautiful rugs, choice 
pieces of antique furniture, vases 
and ornaments, and useful articles, 
too. All these things they were 
sending over to help make their 
home when they should arrive. Do 
we realize it, that there is a sense in 
which we make our own heaven? 
There are a good many people who 
seem to think that heaven is to be a 
gift, ready-made, handed over to 
each of us complete, without any 
effort or price from us. No; a 
heaven into which we have put noth- 
ing cannot be a real heaven to us. 
We must send our treasures, loves, 
and thoughts forward into it. We 
must have learned its language, ac- 
quired its spirit, and gained some 
homestead rights there, if it is to 
be really a home. 


227. Heaven—Gates of Always 
Open 
The Persian kings took state upon 
them, and enacted that none should 
come near to them uncalled, on pain 
of death. But oh! sirs, the gates of 
heaven are always open; you have 
liberty night and day of presenting 
your petition, in the name of Christ, 


HEAVEN 


to the King of the whole earth— 
Ralph Erskine. 


228. Heaven—Heat of 


Professor Huxley tells us that in 
the soil of England there lie buried 
tropical seeds in bewildering variety. 
They have been brought by birds, 
by winds, by many agencies. There 
they lie deeply buried, these tropical 
potencies waiting for what? Hux- 
ley said that if for twelve months we 
could have in England tropical heat 
we should be amazed by the coming 
out of strange seeds, and our little 
gardens would bloom with tropical 
luxuriance. Oh! I think that powers 
we have never conceived lie buried 
in your life and mine (if we have 
Christ)—powers put there by God, 
and waiting for their proper atmos- 
phere! Our lives are too chill, and 
so the seeds are non-germinant. But 
if the heat of heaven would come, I 
think those powers would troop out 
of their graves, and we should be 
amazed to see how rich we were in 
Christ Jesus our Lord.—J. H. Jowett. 


229. Heaven—Moved to 


Passing by a house a short time 
since I noticed the intimation, “This 
house to let.” “How is this? Is the 
former tenant dead?” I asked. “Oh 
no, sir,” said the caretaker; “he has 
removed to a larger house in a better 
situation.” Even thus, as we look 
upon the clay tenement in which 
some loved Christian friend has 
dwelt, we answer, “No, he is not 
dead, but removed into the enduring 
house in ‘the better country,’ where 


the ‘better resurrection’ is, and 
where eternal life is.’—Henry 
Varley. 

230. Heaven—Notes of 


“When a king asked Ole Bull, 
the virtuoso of the violin, where he 
caught the rapturous tones which 
he brought out of his instrument, 
the artist replied: ‘I caught them, 
your Majesty, from the mountains of 


HEAVEN 


Norway.” He had climbed the 
mountains and listened to the storm; 
he had footed the lofty cliffs and 
heard the vespers of the pines at the 
time of the sunset breeze; he had 
heard the midnight litany of the cas- 
cades in the darkness. When inter- 
preting these voices of nature, he 
thrilled the world’s great heart. 
What gives some men power beyond 
others to move and thrill? It is be- 
cause they have ascended the moun- 
tains and gone down into the valleys 
of sorrow and there caught up the 
tones of tenderness and of sub- 
dued strength and_ confidence.’— 
George Douglas. 


231. Heaven—Prospect of 


A clergyman was once summoned 
to a death-bed in one of the slums 
of South London. Flight after flight 
of stairs he mounted, till he came 
to the topmost flat, and found his 
way into a miserable room with 
hardly any furniture, where a poor 
half-starved old man lay dying in 
great pain. As he entered he could 
not help saying, “Oh, I am sorry for 


you!” “Sorry for me?” the old man 
replied. “Why, think of my pros- 
pects !” 

2372. Heaven—Treasures in ~ 


Little Mary was sitting with her 
Uncle George one afternoon while 
he was going over some accounts. 
For an hour all was still, then Mary 
heard him say: “There! I have 
quite a nice little sum laid up against 
a time of need.” 

“What are you talking about, 
Uncle George?” asked Mary. 

“About my treasures, little girl, 
that I have laid up.” 

“Up in heaven?” asked little Mary, 
who had heard her father that morn- 
ing read about laying up treasures 
in heaven. 

“Oh, no, Mary! My treasures are 
all on earth, some in banks and some 
in other places,” answered Uncle 
George. 


103 


“But haven’t you any in heaven, 
too?” asked Mary. 

“Well, I don’t believe I have,” said 
Uncle George, thoughtfully. “But 
run away to your mother now, for 
I am going out.” 

Uncle George went out and was 
gone a good while, but all the time 
he was thinking that, after all, per- 
haps he was not so well off if he had 
no treasures laid up in heaven to be 
ready for him when he left this world 
and his money behind him. He was 
so impressed with the thought that 
he wisely determined to lay up treas- 
ures in heaven. Little Mary never 
knew until years afterwards that it 
was her childish question that started 
Uncle George on a generous, active, 
Christian life. 


233. Heaven—Watching in 


Some time ago there was an 
engineer that run out of Baltimore, 
who had his home close by the rail- 
road, and as he would pass in his 
engine, his little girl would run out 
in the yard to see him go by. After 
a while he knocked off a picket or 
two from the fence, so she could see 
him better, and there she would put 
her little head through and watch 
and wave until he was out of sight. 
He never failed to be at the side of 
his engine to see her and she never 
failed to be at the fence looking for 
him. One day, however, he came 
back on his run and looking out he 
could not see her, so was immedi- 
ately alarmed as he knew something 
was wrong at home. He finished his 
run and hurried home and was met 
by his wife at the door, and with 
tear stained face she told her hus- 
band that their little gir! had been 
suddenly taken sick and the doctor 
said she could not get well. He 
dropped to the floor with a broken 
heart and asked if she was still alive. 
“Yes,” said the mother, “but very 
sick. She told me to give you a 
message in case she didn’t see you 
again.” ‘What is it?” he impatiently 


104 


asked. “She said, ‘Tell papa I am 
going to ask Jesus to take out the 
picket from his fence and I will 


watch for him until he comes.’” The 


little girl passed away and the father, 
who hadn’t been a Christian before, 
kept thinking of his little girl’s mes- 
sage and found the Saviour. He did 
not want her to watch in vain. 


234. Hope of Heaven in Old Age 


How desolate must old age be to 
the man who has no heaven beyond; 
who stands trembling with infirmi- 
ties, declined in ear, and eye, and 
tongue; his hand palsied, his memory 
gone—looking back across’ the 
dreary stretch of life that he has 
just passed over, and forward with 
fear to the life of which he thought 
so little! How glorious for an old 
man to stand, as Moses stood, upon 
the top of the mount, looking across 
the Jordan into the promised land, 
and viewing the fair possessions that 
awaited him! Moses died, and did 
not go over; but the old man shall 
die, and go over, and shall find it in 
that day a land rich, beautiful, and 
glorious.—H. W. Beecher. 


235. Life—Brevity of 

In the anecdote-books of our boy- 
hood we used to be told the story of 
an Indian faquir who entered an 
Eastern palace and spread his bed in 
one of its ante-chambers, pretend- 
ing that he had mistaken the build- 
ing for a caravanserai or inn. The 
prince, amused by the oddity of the 
circumstance, ordered—so ran the 
tale—the man to be brought before 
him, and asked him how he came 
to make such a mistake. “What is 
an inn?” the faquir asked. “A 
place,” was the reply, “where trav- 
elers rest a little while before pro- 
ceeding on their journey.” “Who 
dwelt here before you?” again asked 


the faquir. “My father,” was the 
prince’s reply. “And did he remain 
here?” “No,” was the answer; “he 


died and went away.” “And who 


HEART 


dwelt here before him?” “His ances- 
tors.” “‘And did they remain here?” 
“No; they also died and went away.” 
“Then,” rejoined the faquir, “I have 
made no mistake, for your palace is 
but an inn after all.” The faquir 
was right. Our houses are but inns, 
and the whole world a caravanserai. 
—Clerical Library. 


HEART 


236. Heart—A Believing 


“With the heart a man believeth 
unto righteousness?” Oh, well do I 
remember how like a flash of light 
that verse illumined my soul one 
day when all was at its darkest for 
me. And then I saw what it all 
meant: that God did not ask me to 
believe with my intellect at all, but 
to trust Him with my heart. From 
that hour the world has brightened 
in me, for I know now that I have 
found God. Often and often now I 
cannot believe with the intellect, but 
I can with the heart. And so may 
you. Come, doubts and all, to the 
blessed Lord, and let your hearts 
go out to Him, and He shall give 
you rest unto your soul—W. J. 
Dawson. 


237. Heart—Broken Clown 


They say the clown is a jester and 
has no soul or heart. I will tell you 
of an incident in my own life. I 
married after I came to this coun- 
try, and I[ had a little boy. All sum- 
mer I had to be away from him, but 
in the winters, when the show was 
in winter quarters and I went back 
to New York, I spent hours and 
hours with that little chap. 

One year the show opened early 
and it was still cold. We were play- 
ing in a small Wisconsin town. It 
was a one-night stand and the tent 
was full. I had an unusually funny 
act and brand new. In it I carried 
a baby around in my arms. I was 
supposed to be taking it away from 


HEART 


the nurse. After I had been on a 
little while I was told that I was 
wanted in the pad-room. When I 
got there some one gave me a tele- 
gram from my wife which said: 
“Frank is dying.’ That was my boy. 
He was in New York; I was hun- 
dreds of miles away and I could not 
get to him. Outside in the big tent 
the band was playing, whips were 
cracking in the rings, people were 
laughing and shouting—the whole 
circus fun was on. There I stood 
in my clown’s garb with the tears 
streaming down my white make-up. 
I heard a voice say merrily: 

“Come, Jules; we are waiting for 
you.” 

So I had to go out into that 
crowded arena with a_ breaking 
heart.—Saturday Evening Post. 


238. Heart—Gift of 


A touching incident has been told 
of a sixteen-year-old girl who was a 
chronic invalid, and whose mother 
was a pleasure-loving woman who 
could not erdure the idea of being 
much with her shut-in daughter. 
While the mother was traveling 
abroad in Italy, she remembered the 

‘coming birthday of her daughter, 
and sent her a rare and wonderful 
Italian vase. The trained nurse 
brought it to the girl, saying that her 
mother had sent it so carefully that 
it came right on her birthday. After 
looking at its beauty for a moment 
the girl turned to the nurse and said: 
“Take it away, take it away. O 
mother, mother, do not send me any- 
thing more; no books, no flowers, 
no vases, no pictures. Send me no 


more. I want you, you!” 

Don’t give Christ things—only 
things. He wants you. “Son, 
daughter, give me thy heart.” That 
daughter wanted her mother. She 


wanted her presence, her companion- 
ship, her love. Christ wants you. 
He wants you first of all. He wants 
your yielded heart, your confidence, 
your trust, your union with him. He 


105 


wants your love, prompting you to 
give the best possibilities you have. 
He says, “I want you, you.” Your 
heart fully given, he knows all else 
will follow. 


239. Heart—Hardened 


When I was a soldier I, with 
others, was drawn out to go to such 
a place to besiege it; but when I was 
just ready to go one of the com- 
pany desired to go in my room, to 
which, when I had consented, he 
took my place, and coming to the 
siege, as he stood sentinel, he was 
shot in the head with a musket-bullet, 
and died. Here, as I said, were 
judgments and mercy, but neither of 
them did awaken my soul to right- 
eousness; wherefore I sinned still, I 
grew more and more rebellious 
against God, and careless of my own 
salvation —Bunyan. 


240. Heart—WNeed of a New 


One evening the chief of the Dela- 
ware Indians was sitting by a fire- 
side with a friend. Both were 
silently looking into the fire. At last 
his friend broke the silence by say- 
ing: 

“T have been thinking of a rule 
delivered by the author of the Chris- 
tian religion which we call the 
Golden Rule.” 

“Stop,” said the chief. “Don’t 
praise it. Tell me what it is, and 
let me think for myself.” He was 
informed that the rule was for one 
man to “do to others as he would 
have others do to him.” 

“That is impossible; it cannot be 
done,” hastily replied the Indian. 

Silence followed. In about fifteen 
minutes the Indian said: 

“Brother, I have been thoughtful 
of what you told me. If the Great 
Spirit who made man would give 
him a new heart, he could do as you 
say, but not else.”—Exchange. 


241. Heart—New 
A tourist was once staying at an 


106 


inn in a valley of northern Italy, 
where the floor was dirty. He had 
in mind to advise the landlady to 


scrub it, when he perceived that it 


was made of mud and the more she 
would scrub it the worse it would 
become. So is it with our heart; its 
corrupt nature will admit of no im- 
provement, it must be made new. 


242. Hearts on Fire 


Zinzendorf said to a Moravian 
brother at Herrnhut, “Can you go as 
a missionary to Greenland?” “Yes.” 
“Can you go to-morrow?” “If the 
cobbler has finished my shoes I can 
go to-morrow.” That was a quick, 
willing-hearted response. Wesley 
said: “If I had three hundred men 
who feared nothing but God, hated 
nothing but sin, and were determined 
to know nothing among men but 
Jesus Christ, and him crucified, I 
would set the world on fire.” “Send 
us men,’ said a heathen convert, 
“with hot hearts.” 

It is a zeal like such Rally Day 
ought to kindle in us all. Ready. 
Enlisted. Fearless. Hothearted. 
Such people will set the world on 
fire. 


243. Heart—Refusing the 


There is a story of a colored man 
who came to a watchmaker and gave 
him the hands of a clock, saying, “I 
want yer to fix up dese hands. Dey 
jes doan’ keep no mo’ kerrec’ time 
for mo’ den six monfs.” “Where is 
the clock?” answered the watch- 
maker. “Out at de house on Injun 


Creek.” “But I must have the 
clock.” ,“Didn’t I tell yer dar’s 
nuffin’ de matter wid the clock 
’ceptin’ de han’s? And I done 


brought ’em to yer. You jes’ want 
the clock so you can tinker with it 
and charge me a big price. Give me 
back dem han’s.” Foolish as this 
man was, his catition is very like 
that of people who try to regulate 
their life without being made right 
on the inside. And their reason for 


HEART 


not putting themselves into the 
hands of the Lord is very similar 
to the reason the colored man gave. 
They are afraid the price will be too 


great. They say, “We only wish to 
avoid this or that habit.” But the 
Master Workman says, “I cannot 


regulate the hands unless I have the 
heart.” 


244. Heart—Seeing 


“But do you see it in your own 
heart?” was the penetrating question 
of Mr. Haldane which led to Merle 
D’Aubigne’s conversion. He saw the 
doctrine of the new birth theo- 
logically and as contained in Scrip- 
ture; but as yet he had not known 
it experimentally, as written in the 
heart. And now, while at the Uni- 
versity in Geneva, he tells us that he 
sought and “experienced the joys of 
the new birth.” Being justified by 
faith he had peace with God; he 
knew himself forgiven and accepted. 
But still he lacked perfect joy and 
the peace of God keeping his heart 
and mind. 

Some years after his conversion, 
he and two intimate friends, Fred- 
erick Monod and Charles Rieu, were 
found at an inn at Kiel, where the 
chances of travel had detained them, 
searching the word of God together 
for its hidden riches. D’Aubigne 
thus tells the story of what there 
passed in his own soul :— 

“We were studying the Epistle to 
the Ephesians, and had got to the 
end of the third chapter, where we 
read the last two verses—Now unto 
him who is able to do exceeding 
abundantly above all that we ask or 
think, according to the power that 
worketh in us, unto him be glory, 
etc. This expression fell upon my 
soul as a revelation from God. ‘He 
can do by his power,’ I said to my- 
self, ‘above all that we ask, above 
all even that we think; nay, exceed- 
ing abundantly above all.’ A _ full 
trust in Christ for the work to be 
done within my poor heart now filled 





HELL 


my soul. We all three knelt down, 
and, although I had never fully con- 
fided my inward struggles to my 
friends, the prayer of Rieu was filled 
with such admirable faith as he 
would have uttered had he known 
all my wants. When I arose, in that 
inn room at Kiel, I felt as if my 
‘wings were renewed as the wings of 
eagles.’ From that time forward I 
comprehended that all my own 
efforts were of no avail; that Christ 
was able to do all by his ‘power that 
worketh in us,’ and the habitual atti- 
tude of my soul was, to lie at the 
foot of the cross, crying to him 
‘Here am I, bound hand and foot, 
unable to move, unable to do the 
least thing to get away from the 
enemy who oppresses me. Do all 
thyself. I know that thou wilt do 
it. Thou wilt even do exceeding 
abundantly above all that I ask.’ 

“T was not disappointed: all my 
doubts were removed, my anguish 
quelled; and the Lord ‘extended to 
me peace as a river.’ Then I could 
comprehend with all saints what is 
the breadth and length and depth 
and height, and know the love of 
Christ which passeth knowledge. 
Then I was able to say, ‘Return unto 
thy rest, O my soul! for the Lord 
hath dealt bountifully with thee.’ ”— 
A. J. Gordon. 


245. Heaven in the Heart 

You might put a blind man in the 
Louvre of Paris, and he might walk 
among the acres and prairies of pic- 
ture there, and not be conscious that 
he had seen the stroke of one artist- 
hand. You might bring a deaf man 
within the sound of all the bands of 
heaven and of earth, and there 
would be no music to his conscious- 
ness. And if a man is not prepared 
to enjoy the felicities of heaven, 
those felicities will be nothing to 
him. Heaven is not heaven except 
to those who have the initiation of it 
in themselves. They carry it in their 
own heart first—H. W. Beecher. 


107 


HELL 


246. Hell—Building His Own 


A wealthy contractor, who built 
the Tombs in New York, slept in it 
as a prisoner not long ago. In his 
prosperous days he did a business of 
a half-million a year, but when 
caught in hard circumstance he 
forged a note for $2,000 and was 
convicted and sentenced to imprison- 
ment. The building of the Tombs 
was his last large contract, and into 
it he stepped as a prisoner. “I never 
dreamed,” he said, “when I built this 
prison that I would be an inmate one 
day. But here I am. It is hard luck.” 

It is not hard luck, it is not luck 
at all, but it is the hard way in which 
the transgressor walks and which he 
builds for himself. Every man im- 
prisoned in sin has built his own 
prison. The retribution which 
wrongdoing brings is not an arbi- 
trary punishment inflicted by the 
revenge or caprice of an outside 
judge or fate, but it is just the nec- 
essary consequence of the wrong 
itself. Drunkenness shuts a man up 
in his own habits, as unyielding as 
stone walls and iron bars, and with 
his own fiery appetite, and what 
worse prison could he have? Yet 
he built it himself—Presbyterian 
Banner. 


247. Hell—Explaining 

An old colored preacher of the 
South was asked by a Northerner 
why it was that the colored min- 
isters preached so much about hell. 
“Well, sah,” he replied, “I don’t 
knows jis why dat am, but I done 
be sposen dat de reason am cause 
we cullud folks haint got learnin’ 
enough to splanify de tex’ an’ extin- 
guish de Bible, like you white folks 
am.” We must admit that there is 
more truth than poetry in his state- 
ment—O. A. Newlin. 


248. Spiritual Death 
A man is taken out of the water 


108 


into which he has fallen. It is 
feared that he is past recovery. He 
is brought in. 
nor speaks, nor sees, nor breathes, 
nor moves, nor shows any evidence 
of feeling. And you say, “He is 
dead.” Why is he said to be dead? 
Because he lacks sensibility. 

Now, take a man that is spiritually 
dead. Pinch his conscience; he does 
not start. Bring before him the law, 
and let it thunder in his ears; it 
makes no impression upon him. 
Pierce him with the sword of. the 
Spirit; he does not feel it; he is not 
susceptible to fear; he has no moral 
sensibility. And you say that that 
man is spiritually dead because he is 
not alive to Divine influences.—H. 
W. Beecher. 


HOLY SPIRIT 


249. Baptism of the Spirit— 
Finney’s 

Finney was a Pauline preacher be- 
cause he had a Pauline experience— 
the peace of God and the power of 
God coming to him almost together. 
And giving all due consideration to 
his uncommon natural endowments, 
we are constrained to find the chief 
secret of his success in his remark- 
able spiritual history. Let us read 
this as he has written it for us. 

He had been converted after pass- 
ing through powerful spiritual exer- 
cises, and immediately after, on 
October 10th, 1821, while alone in his 
law office, he says :— 

“T then received a mighty bap- 
tism of the Holy Ghost. Without 
any expectation of it, without ever 
having the thought in my mind that 
there was such a thing for me, with- 
out any recollection that I had ever 
heard the thing mentioned by any 
person in the world, the Holy Spirit 
descended upon me in a manner that 
seemed to go through me, body and 
soul. I could feel the impression 
like a wave of electricity, going 


He no longer hears, ~ 


HOLY SPIRIT 


through and through me. Indeed, 
it seemed to come in waves of liquid 
love; for I could not express it in 
any other way. It seemed like the 
very breath of God. I can recollect 
distinctly that it seemed to fan me 
like immense wings. No words can 
express the wonderful love that was 
shed abroad in my heart. I wept 
aloud with joy and love; and I do 
not know but I should say, I literally 
bellowed out the unutterable gush- 
ings of my heart. These waves 
came over me, and over me, one 
after the other, until I recollect I 
cried out, ‘I shall die if these waves 
continue to pass over me.’ I said, 
‘Lord, I cannot bear any more.’ Yet 
I had no fear of death. . . . Thus 
T continued till late at night. I re- 
ceived some sound repose. When I 
awoke in the morning the sun had 
risen, and was pouring a clear light 
into my room. Words cannot ex- 
press the impression that this sun- 
light made upon me. Instantly the 
baptism that I had received the night 
before returned upon me in the same 
manner. I arose upon my knees in 
the bed and wept aloud with joy, 
and remained for some time too 
much overwhelmed with the baptism 
of the Spirit to do anything but 
pour out my soul to God. It seemed 
as if this morning’s baptism was ac- 
companied with a gentle reproof, and 
the Spirit seemed to say to me, ‘Will 


you doubt? Will you doubt?’ I 
cried, ‘No! I will not doubt; I can- 
not doubt. He then cleared the sub- 


ject up so much to my mind that it 
was impossible for me to doubt that 
the Spirit of God had taken posses- 
sion of my soul.”—A. J. Gordon. 


250. Bible—Holy Spirit in the 
In the diamond-fields of South 
Africa a diamond was found, cele- 
brated lately under the title of fly- 
stone; placed under a magnifying- 
glass, you see enclosed in all its bril- 
liancy a little fly, with body, wings, 
and eyes, in the most perfect state 


HOLY SPIRIT 


of preservation. How it came there 
no one knows, but no human skill 
can take it out. So in Holy Scrip- 
ture the Spirit of God is found in a 
place from which no power of man 
can remove it.—M’Ewan. 


251. Cleansing—Constant 

Learn a lesson from the eye of the 
miner, who all day long is working 
amid the flying coal dust. When he 
emerges in the light of day his face 
may be grimy enough; but his eyes 
are clear and lustrous, because the 
fountain of tears in the lachrymal 
gland is ever pouring its gentle tides 
over the eye, cleansing away each 
speck of dust as soon as it alights. 
Is not this the miracle of cleansing 
which our spirits need in such a 
world as this? And this is what our 
blessed Lord is prepared to do for 
us if only we will trust him—F. B. 
Meyer. 


252. Holy Ghost—Power of 


Rev. William Haslam, the well- 
known evangelist, in referring to 
that remarkable crisis in his min- 
istry when he gained the power of 
the Holy Ghost as he had never 
known it before, says :— 

“A book came into my hands 
which interested me greatly. This I 
read and re-read, and made an ab- 
stract of it. It was the ‘Life of 
Adelaide Newton.’ What struck me 
in it so much was to find that this 
lady was able to hold spiritual com- 
munion with God by means of a 
Bible only. Is it possible, I thought, 
to hold such close communion with 
the Lord apart from the church and 
her ministrations? I do not hesi- 
tate to say that this was the means 
under God of stripping off some re- 
mains of my grave clothes, and en- 
abling me to walk in spiritual 
liberty.”"—A. J. Gordon. 


253. Holy Spirit—Charged by 
It is a common thing now to 
catch the voice of some speaker or 


109 


singer three thousand miles away, 
and those who sing in the broad- 
casting stations expect to be heard 
at least that far. If man has thus 
annihilated distance, how far can the 
Almighty hear? How far can he 
fling his messages out? 

But man cannot hear at all in 
radio if his batteries are down. His 
dry cell and his wet batteries must 
both have real life in them. A very 
wise Jew at one time wrote, “The 
natural man receiveth not the things 
of the Spirit of God; for they are 
foolishness unto him they are 
Spiritually discerned.” A man that 
is not charged with the spirit can- 
not hear God. 

A battery! What is a battery? It 
is a box. Inside are metal plates 
separated by wood or rubber and 
connected in circuit at the top. A 
liquid of acid and water completes 
it. But that battery, as described, 
will not ring a bell or make a spark. 
It is in vain till it is charged. No 
matter what the make nor how 
worthy the materials, there is no 
power till the connections have been 
made with some mighty power line 
and life absorbed from outside. The 
glory of the battery is that it has 
power to take in this life and to 
retain it. 

Every normal man and woman is 
a complete battery ready for a charg- 
ing of the Holy Spirit. 


254. Holy Spirit—Need of 

What a power the Church would 
be if she moved in united strength 
against the enemy. She would be 
like the army of Themistocles, the 
famous Athenian general, during a 
naval battle. At sunrise all were 
ready to advance but no order was 
given. As hour after hour passed, 
the soldiers began to ask, “Is he 
going to fight at all?” “Is it possible 
he is afraid?” But Themistocles 
knew what he was doing. About 
nine o’clock each forenoon there was 
a land breeze in that region, and he 


110 HOLY 


was waiting till it arose, so that in- 
stead of having one-half of his men 
at the oars, the wind would do the 


propelling, and he could have all his — 


men in arms. Oh, that the wind— 
the Spirit—would come upon the 
churches, so that instead of having 
divided interests they would march 
in solid strength all armed against 
opposing forces !—Evangelist Mickle. 


255. Holy Spirit’s Power 

I stood some time ago beside 
Niagara Falls (said Dr. A. C. Dixon, 
of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, in a 
recent address), and looking down 
by the bank of the river I saw a 
great house which I was told was 
the power house. In that house was 
a great dynamo, and from thence 
went wires to Buffalo and to New 
York. They light Toronto by 
Niagara Falls, heat it by the Falls, 
cook their dinners by the Falls, run 
their tramcars by the Falls and at a 
sanatorium near Toronto the pa- 
tients get their electric baths by the 
Falls. And in New York State there 
is one gruesome place where the 
Falls also are at work. They electro- 
cute their criminals by the power 
that comes from Niagara Falls. 

When I went to the Falls again I 
saw the philosophy of it all. Lake 
Ontario is 169 feet below Lake Erie, 
and if you were to lift up Ontario 
to the level of Erie you would have 
no Falls and no power. 

“Tarry at Jerusalem until ye be 
endued with power from on high.” 
That is what we need—to get down, 
to get under, to humble ourselves 
before God, that the power from on 
high may come upon us. It is 
something to have power from be- 
hind, such as a church with prestige 
and a history; something to have 
power from before, such as the thrill 
and hope of coming achievement; 
something to have power round 
about us, such as organization, and 
culture, and wealth; but, somehow, 
the power behind and in front and 


SPIRIT 


round about us is all power on the 
level. What we need is the power 
from on high, the power borne along 
from the great dynamo of God. 

Along those lines comes the power 
which gives light to bring to the 
benighted. Along those lines comes 
the power which gives warmth, and 
sympathy and companionship. Along 
those lines comes the power for 
locomotion—the power to go about 
doing good. Along those lines comes 
pulsing health, quickening us spir- 
itually, a tonic, a refreshment. And 
along those lines comes also death. 
For, I remember, as I turn from that 
gruesome place where the power of 
Niagara Falls is used to rid the State 
of its criminals, that the power from 
on high can execute my sinful self; 
my selfishness, my carnality, every- 
thing that is displeasing to God can 
be put in the chair of judgment and 
the power can be turned on and 
they are gone, and I am free from 
the body of this death. 


256. Life-Giving Breath 

In South America the wind from 
the marshes comes charged with the 
germs of intermittent fever, and 
often the most deadly cholera accom- 
panies stillness in the atmosphere. A 
storm is the best purifier of the air, 
and the inhabitants long eagerly for 
it. From the marshy places of our 
lower nature the fever of lust and 
unsanctified passion comes. The 
stillness of inactivity and donothing- 
ness is always favorable to the 
cholera of doubt and unbelief. The 
great preventive is the soul-stirring 
breath of the Holy Ghost. When 
He comes as a mighty, rushing wind, 
the whole atmosphere of the life is 
purified—James Smith. 


257. Life—Power of the Inner 


On a winter’s day I have noticed 
a row of cottages with a deep load 
of snow on their several roofs; but 
as the day wore on large fragments 


HOLY 


began to tumble from the eaves of 
this one and that other, till, by-and- 
by, there was a simultaneous ava- 
lanche, and the whole heap slid over 
in powdery ruin on the pavement, 
and before the sun went down you 
saw each roof as clear and dry as 
on a summer’s eve. But here and 
there you would observe one with its 
snow-mantle unbroken and a ruff of 
stiff icicles around it. What made 
the difference? The difference was 
to be found within. Some of these 
huts were empty, or the lonely in- 
habitant cowered over a scanty fire; 
whilst the peopled hearth and the 
high-blazing faggots of the rest 
created such an inward warmth that 
grim winter melted and relaxed his 
grip, and the loosened mass folded 
off and tumbled over on the tram- 
pled street. It is possible by some 
outside process to push the main 
volume of snow from the frosty roof 
or chip off the icicles one by one. 
But they will form again, and it 
needs an inward heat to create a 
total thaw. And so, by sundry pro- 
cesses, you may clear off from a 
man’s conduct the dead weight of 
conspicuous sins; but it needs a hid- 
den heat, a vital warmth within, to 
produce such a separation between 
the soul and its besetting iniquities, 
that the whole wintry incubus, the 
entire body of sin, will come spon- 
taneously away. That vital warmth 
is the love of God abundantly shed 
abroad—the kindly glow which the 
Comforter diffuses in the soul which 
He makes His home. His genial 
inhabitation thaws that soul and its 
favorite sins asunder, and makes the 
indolence and self-indulgence and in- 
devotion fall off from their old rest- 
ing-place on that dissolving heart. 
The easiest form of self-mortifica- 
tion is a fervent spirit—James 
Hamilton. 


258. Miracles—Daily 


Sometimes, in the great wheat 
fields, the grain will be ready for the 


SPIRIT 


111 


harvest, when a storm will sweep 
over the land, and the wheat will be 
as if a roller had passed over it. 
Millions of dollars can be lost in a 
storm of thirty minutes duration. 
The wheat, rolled to the ground, is 
too low for the harvester. Its loss 
will be a tragedy to the farmer. 
Then a miracle takes place. The 
sun shines and its warm rays begin 
to caress the broken wheat. A soft, 
drying wind stirs over the land and 
the wheat stalks bezin to lift up the 
heavy heads. Literally millions of 
pounds are lifted up by the soft 
influence of sun and wind. Within 
the third day the wheat’s glorious 
banner is again flung to the breeze. 
As the sun’s light lifts the broken 
wheat, so the miracle of God’s Spirit 
lifting broken lives is daily taking 
place. 


259. Security—Daily 

One Sabbath evening recently the 
old Jerry McAuley Mission room in 
New York City was crowded. Song 
after song was sung as only an 
audience of men can sing. Testi- 
monies were called for. There was 
an eager response. It was inspiring 
to listen to them. One man, a giant 
physically as well as morally, with 
a sincerity that could not be doubted, 
thanked God for having kept him 
’midst severest temptation for eigh- 
teen years. Another was grateful to 
his Heavenly Father for having 
thrown about him influences that had 
kept him from drink for five years. 
And interspersed with song the 
testimonies went on. 

But among those who spoke there 
was one man who, after all, struck 
the keynote of Christian living a 
little truer than all the others. He 
was extremely mnervous—a mere 
wreck of humanity. He deplored his 
weakness, expressed his determina- 
tion to continue the struggle against 
his enemy, begged the prayers of 
God’s people, and added, “I want to 
thank God for keeping me from 


112 


drink during the last twenty-four 
hours.” 

Is it not day by day our Father 
keeps us? 
are to ask for and expect? “Every 
day, every hour, let me feel thy 
cleansing power.” 


260. Spirit—Candle of 


As Michael Angelo wore a lamp 
on his cap to prevent his own 
shadow from being thrown upon 
the picture which he was painting, 
so the Christian minister and servant 
needs to have the candle of the 
Spirit always burning in his heart, 
lest the reflection of self and self- 
glorying may fall upon his work to 
darken and defile it. To show how 
genuine a trait of holiness this self- 
repression is, we recall the words 
of Edward Payson touching the 
same point :— 

April 1, 1806. 

“Spiritual pride. By how many 
artifices does it contrive to show it- 
self! If at any time I am favored 
with clearer discoveries of my 
natural and acquired depravity and 
hatefulness in the sight of God, and 
am enabled to mourn over it, in 
comes spiritual pride with, Aye, this 
is something like. This is holy 
mourning for sin; this is true hu- 
reek a alae Ri gr What a proof that 
the heart is the natural soil of pride, 
when it thus contrives to gather 
strength from the very exercises 
which one would think must destroy 
it utterly.’-—A. J. Gordon. 


261. Spirit—Fruit of 


One day a man saw workmen 
pushing wheelbarrows over a rough 
piece of ground. 

“What are they doing?” he asked 
his friend. 

“Making a garden,” was the reply. 

“But I thought a garden just 
grew,” exclaimed the man. 

“There could not be a greater 
mistake,” said his friend. “To make 


Is it not daily grace we 


HOLY SPIRIT 


a garden means weeks of back- 
breaking toil!” 

Many of us have fallen into the 
same shallow and foolish blunder 
regarding the making of character. 
We thought the graces of Christ’s 
gentlemanliness grew so easily. Now 
we know that they are achieved only 
by ceaseless vigilance and constant 
struggle. “No man becomes a saint 
in his sleep.” said Carlyle. We 
must be fully armed and sharply 
alert. We must wrestle and fight 
and pray. Yet thank God the issue 
does not depend entirely on our 
varying courage and easily ex- 
hausted enthusiasm. In this stren- 
uous and exhilarating adventure we 
are not lonely and isolated soldiers. 

Napoleon when patrolling a camp 
one night, found a young sentry 
asleep at his post. Napoleon quietly 
took the musket out of his hand, and 
marched up and down himself until 
in the dawn the soldier awoke to 
find his general keeping watch in 
his place. So, when the battle of 
life is hot and the situation critical, 
and we are in peril of base sur- 
render, Christ himself will re-en- 
force our weakness, heal our despair, 
and vanquish the hostile forces 
that are too much for us—Un- 
identified. 


262. Spirit—Quenching the 

A man has lost his way in a dark 
and dreary mine. By the light of 
one candle, which he carries in his 
hand, he is groping for the road to 
sunshine and to home. ‘That light 
is essential to his safety. The mine 
has many winding passages, in 
which he may be hopelessly be- 
wildered. Here and there marks 
have been made on the rocks to 
point out the true path, but he can- 
not see them without that light. 
There are many deep pits into which, 
if unwary, he may suddenly fall, 
but he cannot avoid the danger with- 
out that. Should it go out he must 
soon stumble, fall, perish. Should 


HOLY 


it go out that mine will be his tomb. 
How carefully he carries it! How 
anxiously he shields it from sudden 
gusts of air, from water dropping 
on it, from everything that might 


quench it! The case described is 
our own. We are like that lonely 
wanderer in the mine. Does he 


diligently keep alight the candle on 
which his life depends? Much more 
earnestly should we give heed to the 
warning, “Quench not the Spirit.” 
Sin makes our road both dark and 
dangerous. If God gave us no light, 
we should never find the way to the 
soul’s sunny home of holiness and 
heaven. We must despair of ever 
reaching our Father’s house. We 
must perish in the darkness into 
which we have wandered. But He 
gives us His Spirit to enlighten, 
guide, and cheer us.—Newman 
Hall. 


263. Spirit—Warning of 

The island of Ischia was a famous 
summer resort for the Italians. In 
1883 the sinking of water in wells 
as well as mutterings and rumblings 
underground, distinctly foretold a 
coming earthquake; these signs were 
noted and understood, but through 
fear of frightening visitors, and so 
losing custom, hotel keepers and 
others refrained from making public 
these warnings. Ruin and death en- 
sued, involving those who knew and 
heeded not, and those who, through 
lack of warning, had unwittingly ex- 
posed themselves to peril. Many are 
failing to heed warnings more im- 
perative in the realm of the Spirit. 


264. Spirit—Witness of the 
Nothing General Howard ever 
said impressed me more than that 
response of his, after he had ac- 
cepted Christ in the old barracks 
room at Tampa, kneeling before the 
table with his Bible on it, surrender- 
ing to Jesus. In the morning he 
met one of his officers who said, 
“Howard, I hear that you have be- 


SPIRIT 


113 


come a Christian.” “Yes,” Howard 
says, “I have, and I am not ashamed 
of it.” “Why,” he says, “I can show 
you a hundred inconsistencies in the 
Bible.” “Perhaps you can,” says 
Howard, “but you can’t show me 
that last night I did not surrender 
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I 
have been so happy I couldn’t sleep. 
I can wait God’s time for the ex- 
planation of the inconsistencies.” 


265. Union, in the Spirit 

When the tide is out you may 
have noticed, as you rambled among 
the rocks, little pools with little 
fishes in them. To the shrimp, in 
such a pool, his foot depth of salt 
water is all the ocean for the time 
being. He has no dealings with his 
neighbor shrimp in the adjacent pool, 
though it may be only a few inches 
of sand that divide them; but when 
the rising ocean begins to lip over 
the margin of the lurking-place, one 
pool joins another, their various 
tenants meet, and by-and-by, in place 
of their little patch of standing 
water, they have the ocean’s bound- 
less fields to roam in. When the 
tide is out—when religion is low— 
the faithful are to be found in- 
sulated, here a few and there a 
few, in the little standing pools that 
stud the beach, having no dealings 
with their neighbours of the adjoin- 
ing pools, calling them Samaritans, 
and fancying that their own little 
communion includes all that are 
precious in God’s sight. They for- 
get, for a time, that there is a vast 
and expansive ocean rising—every 
ripple brings it nearer,—a mightier 
communion, even the communion of 
saints, which is to engulf all minor 
considerations, and to enable the 
fishes of all pools—the Christians— 
the Christians of all denominations 
—to come together. When, like a 
flood, the Spirit flows into the 
Churches, Church will join to 
Church, and saint will join to saint, 
and all will rejoice to find that if 


114 


their little pools have perished, it 
is not by the scorching summer’s 
drought, nor the casting in of 


earthly rubbish, but by the influx of © 


that boundless sea whose glad 
waters touch eternity, and in whose 
ample depths the saints in heaven, as 
well as the saints on earth, have 
room enough to range-——Hamilton. 


HOME 


266. Home—Eternal 


John Adams, in his extreme old 
age, was visited by Daniel Webster, 
who said, “How are you to-day, 
Mr. Adams?” The old man said, “1 
am living in a tenement that is 
rapidly falling into ruins, and the 
landlord will not make any repairs.” 
This, of course, was not exactly 
true. If repairs had not been made 
in the failing body every day it 
would immediately cease to hold its 
living inmate; but it was true that 
God would not make any repairs for 
the body that would continue it as 
a suitable house for an immortal 
spirit. And when the tenant was 
removed, the house would quickly 
go to decay. But what matter about 
the earthly house, if the inmate has 
gone to inhabit another body which 
God will give him, fashioned like 
unto Christ’s glorious body? 


267. Home—Eternal 


A godly man, who had built a new 
house had put over the door in golden 
letters the one word: “Linquenda,” 
“T must leave it.” Karl Gerock, the 
celebrated German poet, wrote about 


it as follows: ‘Write this word 
above everything you value. Write 
it upon your house, proprietor ; 


upon your bonds, capitalist; upon 
your jewelry, young lady; upon 
your stores, business man; write it, 
mother, in spirit upon the brow 
of your child; husband, note, it 
is written above the head of your 
wife, Man, see it is written above 


HOME 


this world, with all the beautiful and 
good things it contains! How much 
cause have we to cleave to One who 
has said: ‘I will never leave thee, 
nor forsake thee!’” 


268. Homeless Through Eternity 


Picture the groups sitting around 
and watching and reviling the sut- 
fering Saviour. A party of gentle- 
men sitting upon the deck of a 
steamer coming up the Delaware 
River after dark looked with admira- 
tion upon the distant clouds illum- 
inated by a conflagration in the city 
of Philadelphia. When the landing 
was reached, one of them received 
the message, “Your factory has been 
entirely destroyed by fire.” He had 
been smiling at the blaze which made 
him almost penniless. Many sit 
down and indifferently read of a 
crucified Christ, little thinking that 
rejecting that Christ will render them 
homeless through all eternity. 


269. Home—Sate 


Over in one of our eastern cities 
was an engineer who had been on the 
road for a good many years. He 
was one day addressing a crowd of 
men among whom were a good many 
railroad men. In closing his address 
he said, “Men, I can’t begin to tell 
you what Jesus has meant to me. 
Years ago on every night when I 
would finish my run I would pull 
open the whistle and let out a blast 
just as we came around the curve 
and I would look up to a small hill 
where stood a little white cottage 
and there would be a little old man 
and a little old woman standing in 
the door-way. I would lean out of 
the old cab window and we would 
wave at each other and as my en- 
gine would go shooting into a tun- 
nel the old couple would turn and 
go back inside and the little old 
woman would say to the little old 
man, ‘Thank God, father, Bennie is 
safe home to-night.’ 

“But at last the day came when we 





HOME 


took mother out and laid her away 
and then each night as I came around 
the curve and blew the whistle the 
little old man would be at the door 
and I would wave to him and he 
would wave to me and then as my 
train shot through the tunnel he 
would turn and go slowly back into 
the cottage and say, “Thank God, 
Bennie is safe home to-night.’ 

“But bye and bye the time came 
when we carried father out too and 
now when I finish my run although 
I pull open the whistle and let out a 
blast there are no dear ones to wel- 
come me home. But when my work 
on earth is done, when the last run 
has been made and I have pulled 
the throttle and the whistle for the 
last time, as I draw near to heaven’s 
gate I know I shall see that same 
little, old couple waiting there for 
me, and as I go sweeping through 
the gate I will see my dear old 
mother turn to my dear old father 
and hear her say, ‘Thank God, 
father, Bennie is safe home at last.’ ” 
—W. E. Biederwolf. 


270. Home, Sweet Home 


On the tenth of April in 1852, be- 
neath the African sun, died an Amer- 
ican. He was laid to rest in a lonely 
cemetery in Tunis, Africa. Thirty- 
one years later, as an act of a grate- 
ful public, the United States dis- 
patched a man-of-war to the African 
coast, American hands opened that 
grave, placed the dust of his body on 
board the battleship, and turned 
again for his native land. Their ar- 
rival in the American harbor was 
welcomed by the firing of guns in 
the fort, and by a display of flags 
at halfmast. His remains were car- 
ried to the nation’s Capital City on 
a special train. There was a sus- 
pension of all business, an adjourn- 
ment of all departments of govern- 
ment, and as the funeral procession 
- passed down Pennsylvania Avenue, 
the President, Vice-President, mem- 
bers of the cabinet, congressmen, 


115 


judges of the supreme court, officers 
of the army and navy, and a mass of 
private citizens, rich and poor, stood 
with uncovered heads. To whom did 
they thus pay homage? To a man 
who expressed the longing of his 
heart rather than the happy experi- 
ence of his life; a man whose soul 
longed for the domestic tranquillity 
of a pious home, and he expressed 
that longing in the words of that 
sweet song, “Home, Sweet Home.” 
—QO. A. Newlin. 


271. Homes Without Christ 


In a Brahmin family a mother was 
proud of her two children. She was 
even proud of her husband, although 
he was selfish and thoughtless. Sub- 
mission is a womanly virtue in In- 
dia and she never complained. Be- 
ing of the highest caste, the family 
enjoyed the rights and privileges ac- 
corded them. 

One day an accident befell the 
mother. Falling into the fire, she 
suffered from severe burns on her 
face and right hand. One month 
late, a third child was born. The 
mother still suffered from her in- 
jury. She was unable to do the 
housework for her husband. He de- 
termined to turn her out and take 
another wife. 

The new wife arrived and the old 
one had to take her departure. But 
she could not bear to leave her chil- 
dren. She made up her mind to 
hang around until she could deter- 
mine whether the new wife was kind 
to them. Her heart was filled with 
joy when she found out that it was 
so. 

Only then was she ready to think 
of herself. She had heard of the 
foreign doctor in the Mission hos- 
pital at Nasirabad. To him she de- 
cided to go. In her mind she had 
worked out a plan. If the Mission 
medicine cured her, she had great 
hopes of coming back to her hus- 
band. As a wife? No, she thought 
that she might be employed by him 


116 


in the home as a servant. Just to be 
near the children again she made the 
iong journey to Dr. McLaren. The 
good doctor’s wife said: “The sad- 
dest part of it all was that she made 
no complaint. It was all taken as a 
matter of course, and for her there 
was no redress, because of the in- 
efficiency of the laws and religion of 
the country.” Of course there are 
thousands of happy homes in India, 
and thousands of men far better than 
their laws and their religion; but 
still, every now and again, here and 
there, women are met who have been 
treated as this woman was, and who 
are suffering as she _ suffered.— 
Stanley A. Hunter. 


27z. Home—Temporary 

A man in comfortable circum- 
stances was planning a new home 
for his family. He bought a tract 
of ground in the suburbs of the city. 
He laid out the ground and planted 
trees and shrubbery years before he 
was ready to build. Then the time 
came when the new house was actu- 
ally under construction. But the 
man never moved into the house. 
Illness fell upon him, and when the 
house of brick and mortar and lum- 
ber was taking shape his earthly tab- 
ernacle of clay was crumbling away. 
He made plans, but could not see 
their completion. 


273. Homeward Bound 
That young, chivalrous and power- 
ful knight, Maltbie Babcock, pure 
and sweet as a summer’s morning, 
in one of his bright, manly, human 
songs sang this cheery strain: 
“Some day the bell will sound, 
Some day my heart will bound, 
As with a shout 
That school is out— 
And, lessons done, 
I homeward run.” 


274. Home—Worship in 
A lady and her little daughter were 


HOME 


in a service in which the preacher 
spoke about how obedience toward 
God is revealed in the manner in 
which one attends to the small duties 
of every-day life. He described how 
many parents neglect their spiritual 
duties in the home; how they retire 
night after night without praying for 
God’s watchcare and how in the 
morning they fail to thank him for 
rest, protection and the new blessings 
of the new day. The little girl lis- 
tened attentively. Then turning to 
her mother, she whispered: “Mamma, 
is the minister talking about you?” 
The simple question pierced her 
heart. She said nothing, but that 
night she kneeled before her bed, 
confessed her sin and asked God’s 
help in carrying out her duties. 


275. Mansions—Building 


There is a Hindoo legend of a 
king, who hired a master builder, 
and gave him a large sum of money 
and sent him to the Himalayas to 
build the most magnificent palace 
ever erected on this earth. When the 
builder arrived at the place, he found 
the people dying of starvation. He 
used all his own money, and the 
king’s too, for food, and saved hun- 
dreds of lives. The king was so 
angry when he heard of it that he 
said, “To-morrow the builder shall 
die.” 

That night the king dreamed he 
was in heaven and in the most beau- 
tiful palace he ever saw. He asked 
who owned it, and an angel said, “It 
is yours, built by the man you have 
condemned to death.” The next day 
the man received his pardon. 


276. Parents—Duty of 


To a father who admitted in court 
that he did not know how his son, 
then under arrest, had been spend- 
ing his evenings or what he had been 
doing, the judge put some questions 
that other fathers might well ask 
themselves: “Do you keep a horse?” 
“Yes, Your Honor.” “Where is it 


PERSONAL WORK 117 


now?” “In the barn.” “You know 
where it is every night, don’t you? 
You lock the barn door to keep the 
horse safe, and you feed it and care 
ene cie Aue Vout). ¥es, sir.” 
“Which do you think the most of, 
the horse or the boy?” “The boy, 
of course.” “Then see that you 
treat him as well as you treat the 
horse.” 


277. The Old-Fashioned Parents 


The good old-fashioned mothers and 
the good old-fashioned dads, 

With their good old-fashioned las- 
sies and their good old-fashioned 
lads, 

Still walk the lanes of loving in their 
simple, tender ways, 

As they used to do back yonder in 
the good old-fashioned days. 


They dwell in every city and they 
live in every town, 

Contentedly and happy and not hun- 
gry for renown; 

On every street you'll find ’em in 
their simple garments clad, 

The good old-fashioned mother and 
the good old-fashioned dad. 


There are some who sigh for riches, 
there are some who yearn for fame, 

And a few misguided people who no 
longer blush at shame; 

But the world is full of mothers, and 
the world is full of dads, 

Who are making sacrifices for their 
little girls and lads. 


They are growing old together, arm 
in arm they walk along, 

And their hearts with love are beat- 
ing and their voices sweet with 
song; 

They still share their disappoint- 
ments and they share their pleas- 
ures, too, 

And whatever be their fortune, to 
each other they are true. 


They are watching at the bedside of 
a baby pale and white, 

And they kneel and pray together 
for the care of God at night; 


They are romping with their chil. 
dren in the fields of clover sweet, 
And devotedly they guard them from 

the perils of the street. 


They are here in countless numbers, 
just as they have always been, 
And their glory is untainted by the 

selfish and the mean. 
And I'd hate to still be living, it 
would dismal be and sad, 
If we'd no old-fashioned mother and 
we'd no old-fashioned dad. 
—Edgar A. Guest, 


PERSONAL WORK 


278. Beggars—Christian 


An Arab beggar used to sit at the 
gate of a rich man’s house, on whose 
bounty he depended, and from whom 
he received daily alms. One day his 
patron wished to send a letter in a 
hurry, and, seeing the beggar, asked 
him to deliver it. The beggar drew 
himself up and said, “I solicit alms; 
I don’t run errands.” We have been 
soliciting alms from God all our 
lives, and yet how unwilling we are 
to convey his message of salvation 
or do any other service for him. 


279. Best—Giving Our 
Helen Hunt Jackson wrote this, it 
is said, on the day before her death: 


If I can live to make some pale face 
brighter, and to give 

A second luster to some tear-dimmed 
eye, or e’en impart 

One throb of comfort to an aching 
heart, 

Or cheer some wayworn soul in pass- 
ing by; 

If I can lend a strong hand to the 
fallen, or defend 

The right against a single envious 
strain, 

My life, though bare, 

Perhaps, of much that seemeth dear 


and fair 
To us of earth, will not have been in 


vain. 


118 


The purest joy, most near to heaven, 
far from earth’s alloy, 

Is bidding cloud give way to sun and 
shine; and ’twill be well 

If one that day of days the angels 
tell 

Of me, She did her best for one of 
Thine. 


280. Christian Activity 


There is a wide, shallow river in 
Arizona, the Ria Puerco, that has 
this peculiarity—its bed is nearly 
all quicksand on which you may 
travel with safety providing you keep 
moving, but the instant a halt is 
made the treacherous sands begin to 
engulf you. How like the world 
that is! God never intended that we 
should tarry in it since “the fall.” 
The Christian must keep moving or 
become submerged in its sands. 


281. Christian Workers Wanted 


An advertisement in a newspaper 
reads as follows: 

“Partner Wanted For A _ Going 
Concern. 

“Capital not necessary. 

“Hundreds of thousands of un- 
filled orders and they’re all marked 
rush. You’re not asked to put up 
any money. But there’s something 
you have which will enable the manu- 
facturer to buy money. Lend it and 
we'll both be gainers.” 

Could anything better state the 
appeal that is constantly made for 
Christian workers, especially Chris- 
tian witnesses and_ soul-winners? 
Nations appealing for the Gospel 
“and they’re all marked rush!” You 
have the time and the potential 
power at your disposal. Will you 
become an active partner? 


282. Creed and Deed 


A young and enthusiastic worker 
in God’s vineyard came to an older 
and more experienced Christian 
friend and told him the following 
experience: “Yesterday I spoke to 
old Peter M. about his soul’s salva- 


PERSONAL WORK 


tion. I had a good opportunity as 
we went a long way together. I 
spoke to him as fervently as possi- 


‘ble about the love of God, but the 


old man seemed wholly unresponsive, 
and replied to my invitation to ac- 
cept Christ, ‘I am a poor old man 
and must stagger under the load of 
firewood I had so much trouble in 
collecting. I can feel nothing of the 
love of God.’ How terrible is such 
hard-heartedness !” The  experi- 
enced Christian replied that he must 
acknowledge it quite natural that the 
old man did not respond to the invi- 
tation as he should have. ‘Natural?’ 
said the man, “what do you mean? I 
told him ail about Christ in a biblical 
way.” “My brother, had you borne 
his load of wood for him, he surely 
would have considered your words, 
as he would have not only heard 
about the love of God, but seen an 
illustration of it in you.” 


283. Duty—Evading 

“I pray thee have me excused.” 
A general asked a certain soldier 
standing in the front rank: “Meier, 
what would you do if during the war 
yonder bridge had to be _ taken, 
although it lies under the mouth of 
the enemy’s cannon and, as only a 
few soldiers could advance at the 
same time, the order would be given: 
‘Volunteers to the front!’?” “I would 
quickly jump to one side to let the 
volunteers pass,” he answered. How 
many of us have acted so when a 
piece of work requiring self-sacri- 
fice was expected of God’s children? 
Don’t duck. 


284. Duty—Wavering in 

The deed is done so quietly—the 
little deed. It is so silent, so brief. 
It is merely a movement, a word; 
sometimes it is merely a glance. It 
is the scratch of a pen. The deed 
is done—done immediately and si- 
lently. There is no peal of thunder 
or avenging flash of lightning pierc- 
ing the trees, and finding out the 


PERSONAL WORK 


guilty soul. The deed is done. It 
was done and passed into the an- 
nexus of things without any sign 
and without any immediate result at 
all. You get up from it and you 
pass out. The sun shines, the birds 
are singing, the flowers bloom, the 
gentle scents of the summer are 
waited in the breeze. It is all the 
same, nothing has happened; and, 
after taking the forbidden fruit, you 
wipe your mouth and think it is 
past, it is done, it is forgotten. But 
it is not; it is there; it cannot be 
undone. Because the sentence is not 
executed immediately it is not for- 
gotten; it only waits its time. The 
Stoneycliff lighthouse on the Chan- 
nel has a revolving light, and one 
night, some time ago, the keeper of 
the lighthouse fell asleep at his 
watch, and the clockwork which re- 
volved the light came to a stand. 
Later the lighthouse keeper started 
up and saw what had happened 
and set the clockwork going again. 
Then he peered into the night to see 
if any ship were passing. He could 
see nothing. He hoped nothing had 
passed at that moment, and as there 
seemed to be nothing he did not 
enter the little slip into his logbook 
and he tried to sleep. The next day 
he tried to forget, and the next day 
nothing happened, and the weeks be- 
gan to pass and nothing happened, 
and all was forgotten. The little 
incident had passed out of his mind 
and his mind was at rest. But four 
months afterward the captain of a 
P. & O. liner was dining at Trinity 
House, and he said to the official 
who was close to him, “When did you 
make the Stoneycliff a fixed light?” 
“Tt is not a fixed light,’ said the 
oficial. “Well,” he _ said, “four 
months ago I was passing down the 
Channel at two o’clock and the light 
was fixed.” “That is impossible,” said 
the official; and the captain, eager 
to show that he was right, said, “I 
made note of it, and I can bring my 
first officer and others to show that 


119 
it was so,” and the official said, 
“Ah,” and the captain wished he 


could have withdrawn his words; he 
feared what might happen. But it 
was too late, and the next morning, 
by the first train, the inspector went 
down to dismiss the keeper of the 
lighthouse on the spot—Robert F. 
Horton. 


285. Friend Wanted 


The late Bishop Dudley, of Ken- 
tucky, was once on a hunting expedi- 
tion near Louisville and happened to 
fall in with a local Nimrod whose 
unconcealed admiration of the city 
man’s marksmanship paved the way 
for further conversation. 

“What’s your name?” the country- 
man finally inquired. 

“Dudley,” was the reply. 

After some exchange of incident 
and experience, the bishop’s inter- 
locutor hazarded, “Say, Dudley, 
what business do you follow ?” 

“T’m a preacher.” 

“Oh, get out! What are you giv- 
ing me?” 

“But I am. 
day.” 

“Where?” 

“In Louisville.” 

“Well, well; I never would ha 
thought it. You ain’t stuck up a 
bit, like most of the preachers down 
this way.” 

An invitation to hear this new- 
made acquaintance preach was ac- 
complished by a scribbled card, and 
the next Sabbath saw the rustic in 
his “Sunday best” ushered into the 
bishop’s own pew, where he listened 
intently to both service and sermon. 

He was manifestly amazed after~ 
ward to have the orator of the morn- 
ing come down to greet him as cor- 
dially and familiarly as in the woods. 
He managed to stammer his thanks 
and added: “I ain’t much of a judge 
of this kind of thing, parson, but I 
riz with you and sot with you and 
saw the thing through the best I 
knew how, but all the same if my 


I preach every Sun- 


> 


120 


opinion’s wuth anything to you, the 
Lord meant you for a shooter !”— 
Chicago Tribune. 


286. Happiness—Art of 


The art of being happy is the fin- 
est of the fine arts. 

So Dr. Charles E. Barker of 
Washington, D. C., said recently. As 
physical adviser at the White House 
he first tried his recipe on Presi- 
dent Taft, being the man who taught 
Taft how to decrease his weight. 
Recently he told his recipe for hap- 
piness in five rules: 

“Cultivate the habit of looking on 
the bright side of every experience, 
no matter what it is. 

“Accept cheerfully the place you 
find yourself in to-day. 

“Throw your whole soul into your 
work. 

“Do as many courtesies as possible 
for the people you are thrown with 
every day. 

“Adopt and maintain a childlike at- 
titude of trust in your God. 
_ “Everybody can tell how happy a 

life they are living by asking them- 
selves one simple question: How do 
you act back home at the breakfast 
table? 

“T used to believe that anyone 
could be happy with plenty of money 
and automobiles and yachts and so 
on. But my experience as a physi- 
cian has cured me of that. I have 
found the folks of that class usu- 
ally the most miserable in the world. 

“Nearly everybody lives one sort 
of double life; one on dress parade 
and one back in the home.” 


287. Help—wNeglected 


Just a few hours after the awful 
Iroquois theater fire in Chicago, a 
lady who was returning from the 
city to her home at Oak Park, no- 
ticed in the seat opposite her in the 
street car, a young lady who seemed 
so pale and agitated that she finally 
ventured to engage her in conversa- 


PERSONAL WORK 


tion and ask the cause of her unu- 
sual excitement. With intense emo- 
tion, the young lady stated that she 
was one of the few who had escaped 
unhurt from the terrible disaster at 
the theater, she having been borne 
along with the fear maddened crowd, 
trampling upon the writhing forms 
of those who had fallen, never to 
rise again. When she had finished, 
the older lady said: “Certainly you 
ought to feel thankful that you es- 
caped such a frightful death.” 
Quickly, the now weeping girl, re- 
plied: “Yes, I know I ought to be 
thankful, but oh, I didn’t save any- 
one!” Hoping to comfort her, the 
lady soothingly said, “Yes, dear, but 
you were perfectly excusable in act- 
ing for yourself under such intense 
excitement.” Instead of taking com- 
fort from the words the trembling 
girl only bowed her head and sobbed 
aloud, “Yes, but I didn’t even try to 
help anyone.” That same cry will 
arise from the lips of many a Chris- 
tian some day when it is known 
that loved ones in the home died 
worse than physical deaths, and yet 
they hadn’t even tried to help save 
them. The burning shame of it all 
is that we do not try. 


288. I Accept 


The Rev. John Van Ness, of the 
Narberth, Pa., Presbyterian Church, 
was recently telling his congregation 
how French women have been visit- 
ing the new-made soldier cemeteries 
near their villages, and how each one 
has been chalking over her signature 
on the rude wooden crosses the 
words, “I accept.” It meant that 
these good women would be responsi- 
ble for keeping green these graves 
of boys whose loved ones, who would 
otherwise perform this ministry, 
were far away in distant lands. The 
incident beautifully suggests to us, 
this pastor said, that the finished 
work of redemption is represented by 
a cross that stood near an open tomb, 
and upon which we must by faith 


PERSONAL WORK 


inscribe those words of eternal im- 
port, “I accept.”—The Sunday School 


Times. 


289. Idle Hands 

When I was in the army before 
Port Hudson I remember that night 
after night, when our campfires were 
built, we boys used to sit around 
them and discuss various matters; 
and sometimes our discussions be- 
came very heated, and sometimes we 
lost our tempers, and sometimes we 
said angry words. But one night, 
right in the midst of a discussion, 
there broke upon us that awful, 
startling sound which, once heard is 
never forgotten. Away off, on the 
right of the line, it began; but it 
rolled in a thundering, awful echo, 
until it chilled our hearts. It was 
the long roll, and every man was on 
his feet, and every man _ shook 
hands with his comrade and said, 
“Forgive me. When we were idle 
we could afford to discuss; but now 
there is work to do, it finds us broth- 
ers.’—G. Hepworth. 


290. Impossible—Nothing 


“Got any rivers they say are un- 
crossable? 
Got any mountains you can’t tunnel 
through? 
We specialize on the wholly impos- 
sible, 
Doing the thing that no one can 
do.” 


The impossible becomes possible 
when we walk with the Lord.—Sun- 
day School Times. 


291. Jesus—How to Shine for 


Two plowshares were made from 
the same pig iron. One was sold 
to a farmer who used it constantly. 
The other remained on the shelf of 
the hardware store, unsold until it 
was covered with rust. The farmer 
brought his wornout share td get an- 
other like it. The rusty share was 


121 


brought out, and there was _ its 
brother shining like a silver mirror. 
“How is it,’ the rusty one asked, 
“that your life has been so wearing 
and yet has made you so beautiful? 
Once we were alike: I have grown 
ugly in spite of my easy life.” “That 
is it,” replied the shining share, “the 
beautiful life is the sacrificial life.” 


292. Keep Chiseling 

A gentleman who was walking 
near an unoccupied building one day 
Saw a stonecutter chiseling patiently 
at a block of stone in front of him. 
The gentleman went up to him. 
“Still chiseling?” he remarked pleas- 
antly. “Yes, still chiseling,” replied 
the workman, going on with his work. 
“To what part of the building does 
this stone belong?” asked the gen- 
tleman. “I don’t know,” replied the 
stonecutter; “I haven’t seen the 
plans.” And then he went on chisel- 
ing, chiseling, chiseling. And that 
is what we should do. We have not 
seen the great plans of the Master 
Architect above, but each of us has 
his work to do, and we should chisel 
away until it is done.—Christian Her- 
ald. 


2937. Laborers Together 


Phillips Brooks said: “The chisel 
cannot carve a noble statue—it is only 
cold, dead steel. Yet neither can the 
artist carve the statue without the 
chisel. When, however, the two are 
brought together, when the chisel lays 
itself in the hands of the sculptor, 
ready to be used by him, the beauti- 
ful work begins. We cannot do 
Christ’s work—our hands are too 
clumsy for anything so delicate, so 
sacred; but when we put ourselves 
into the hands of Christ, his wisdom, 
his skill, and his gentleness flow 
through us, and the work is done. 
Christ and we do it—not we alone, 
for we could not do it; yet not 
Christ alone, for he depends on us. 
That is the true rally spirit. God 


122 
and I. “We are laborers together 
with God.” 


294. Life—Blooming 


The century plant had bloomed and 
after the flower faded the gardener 
began to cut it down, and then I ex- 
claimed: 

“Why are you cutting it down? 
Won't it revive again after it has 
had a little rest?” 

“No, the old plant's done for! 
Might have lived to be a hundred 
years old, though, if it hadn’t up 
and bloomed, but now it’s as dead 
as a door-nail!” 

“Does blooming always kill them?” 
was my amazed query. 

“Yes, ma’am; in this country, any- 
how, so far as I know,” was the 
emphatic rejoinder. 

“Then why did you not cut back 
and not let it bloom?” was my next 
query. 

The old gardener, looking me in 
the face as he leaned on the axe 
handle, said: 

“Now, honest, ma’am, wasn’t it bet- 
ter to let the thing die? Seein’ it 
bloomed, it’s given pleasure to hun- 
dreds of people this summer who 
never saw the like before.” 

Then, as the old philosopher again 
swung his axe, he added, between 
blows: 

“A blooming death, to my way o’ 
thinkin’, is a mighty sight better’n a 
no-account life!” 

I walked away thinking, not of the 
century plant, but of the gardener’s 
suggestive words: 

“A bloomin’ death is a mighty sight 
better’n a no-account life !”—Christian 
Intelligencer. 


295. Life—Water of 


When I was in Egypt in 1917 I 
used to pass to and fro along the 
banks of the Suez Canal, and I no- 
ticed miles of deserted British camps 
from which the troops had moved on 
their leaving for Palestine but a few 


PERSONAL WORK 


The whole region 
had been alive. Now it was given 
back to the desert. But here and 
there traces of the old order, the old 
civilization remained. The shell of a 
hut, a length of pegs, a stand for 
wash basins, a set of goal posts mark- 
ing a football ground. What espe- 
cially caught my eye, however, and 
remained in my memory, was a tiny 
patch of green round the stem of an 
unsteady-looking derelict pump, by 
the side of which one could still read 
the legend: “Drinking Water.” The 
water was still there underneath, but 
it could get out, yet just enough 
found its way to the surface to show 
what the buried supplies, if drawn 
upon fully, might effect, even in the 
desert sand. The seeds of life were 
there, and a very little water had 
started them growing. And ever 
since the scene has remained with me 
as a parable of the world situation, 
and of the individual soul. Bring God 
into either, and the desert will re- 
cede before the spread of life, and 
disorder will yield to order again. 
But it is only, as we have seen, 
through individuals that the streams 
can go out and change the face of ai- 
fairs. In every one of us there is a 
divine spring. Are you drawing up- 
on it? Or is that old pump in the 
desert a picture of how it is with 
your spiritual life? 


months before. 


296. Light-Giving 

A young man who had heard the 
gospel accepted Christ. A little while 
after this, a Christian teacher asked 
him: “What have you done for 
Christ since you believed?” He re- 
plied: “Oh, I’m a learner.” “Well,” 
said the questioner, “when you light 
a candle do you light it to make the 
candle more comfortable, or to have 
it give light?” He replied, “To give 
light.” “Do you expect it to give 
light after it is half burned, or when 
you first light it?” He replied, “As 
soon as I light it.” “Very well,” was 
the reply, “go thou and do likewise; 


PERSONAL WORK 


begin at once.” Shortly after there 
were fifty more Christians in town 
as a result of the man’s work. 


297. Lost—Seeking the 


In Richard Whiteling’s book, “No. 
5 John Street,” there is a young girl 
who struggled hard to bring refine- 
ment and beauty into her life, and at 
last burst out with the bitter cry, 
“Oh, why didn’t you ketch me when 
I was a kid?” Hundreds and thou- 
sands of people have felt as she did. 
The cry of the slum-girl about being 
“ketched” is just the slum way of 
saying that what she needed was to 
be “apprehended of Christ Jesus.” 

That is what Paul said of him- 
self. While on his mad career, on 
the way to Damascus, Jesus “appre- 
hended” him, or as the American 
Version says it, “laid hold of” him, 
or in our modern speech, arrested 
him. 


298. Memory—Precious 


After the Civil War, Booker T. 
Washington, who had been a slave, 
remained on the old plantatio.. Nat- 
urally, the new owners were not in 
sympathy with the traditions of the 
old home. One day Booker was or- 
dered to dig up a crimson rambler 
rose bush. A few days later he was 
reminded that he had not done as he 
was commanded. The third time he 
was ordered to dig up the rose bush 
at once, or leave the place. With 
proper meekness, yet with emphasis, 
he replied: “Missus, I wants to do 
everything you tells me, but I can’t 
dig up dat rose bush. Old mistress 
held dat bush while I put the dirt 
around it, and she loved dat rose 
bush mighty well. She first learned 
me how to pray. She sleep out dar 
in de garden, waitin’ de morning of 
de resurrection. No, missus, I can’t 
dig up dat bush.” 

He could not forget the words and 
life of the one who had led him to 
Christ—J. W. Porter. 


123 


299. Moral Deserts 


James Tyson, a Bushman in Aus- 
tralia, died worth $25,000,000. “But,” 
he said, with a characteristic semi- 
exultant snap of the fingers, “the 
money is nothing, It was the lit- 
tle game that was the fun!” Be- 
ing asked once, “What was the lit- 
tle game?” he replied with energy: 
“Fighting the desert. That has 
been my work. I have been fighting 
the desert all my life, and I have 


won. I have put water where was 
no water. And beef where was no 
beef. I have put fences where there 


were no fences and roads where 
there were no roads. Nothing can 
undo what I have done, and millions 
will be happier for it after I am long 
dead and forgotten.” 

Fighting the moral deserts of the 
lives of people is the splendid task 
of every Christian worker. It is a 
sterner task than fighting the deserts 
of nature, important as this may be. 


300. Personal Work 


In a recent address of Bishop 
Hughes, he spoke of a deacon in a 
certain Congregational church in 
Boston, who many years ago said 
to himself, “I cannot speak in 
prayer meeting. J cannot do many 
other things in Christian service, but 
I can put two extra plates on my 
dinner table every Sunday and in- 
vite two young men who are away 
from home to break bread with me.” 
He went along doing that for more 
than thirty years. He became ac- 
quainted with a great company of 
young men who were attending that 
church, and many of them became 
Christians through his personal in- 
fluence. When he died recently he 
was to be buried in Andover, thirty 
miles distant, and because he was 
a well-known merchant, a_ special 
train was chartered to convey the 
funeral party. It was made known 
that any of his friends among the 
young men who had become Chris- 


124 


tians through his influence would be 
welcomed in a special car set aside 
for them. And a hundred and fifty 
of them came and packed that car 
from end to end in honor of the 
memory of the man who _ had 
preached to them the gospel of the 
extra dinner plate. 


301. Personal Work—Dificult 


“We have found the Messiah—He 
brought him unto Jesus.” John 1: 
4l, 42. 

In a South Coast Town, some 
years ago, a business girl who was 
having a very hard time among her 
friends and suffering much perse- 
cution for her Christian testimony, 
came to a friend of mine who was 
holding a series of special Sunday 
evening services in a large theater. 
She told him she was afraid she 
must give it all up. He said to her, 
“Tell me, where do we put the 
lights?” She looked puzzled at his 
question, so he answered it, “We put 
the lights in a dark place,” he said. 
In a moment she saw his meaning, 
and realized God had put her in 
those difficult surroundings that she 
might shine for Jesus in the midst 
of the darkness. She went back de- 
termined to be more courageous than 
ever in her witness for Christ. A 
few weeks later, after the theater 
service, she came to him with a 
group of other girls, all radiant with 
joy. “Oh,” she said, “the thirteenth 
from our business house has decided 
for Christ to-night.” 

The story is told of a rather timid 
young member of the Brotherhood of 
St. Andrew, that he tried in vain to 
induce a young friend of his to 
come to the church services and 
Bible class. He used to call for him 
every Sunday, but it was of no use. 
Finally, however, he won him, and 
when asked how he did it, replied, 
“Well, I got tired of calling on him 
so often, so at last I decided to go 
and board at the same house with 
him.” 


PERSONAL WORK 


302. Personal Work—Fear in 


I turned to a big business man 
whom I knew well and asked the 
privilege of using him as an illus- 
tration. He was a very prosperous 
man, on the board of directors of big 
corporations. He was also a de- 
voted Christian; loyal to his church; 
giving time and strength to the teach- 
ing of a men’s big Bible class. I 
said to him: “Mr. D., you are 
teacher of a big Bible class for men. 
Does it require any extra courage 
and superior consecration for you to 
teach that class?” “Oh, no!” he 
answered; “I delight to do it.” “If I 
asked you,’ I continued, “to go 
down to the Salvation Army Citadel 
some night and present the Gospel 
to the crowd that gathers there, 
would that challenge test your cour- 
age in a special way?” “Not at all,” 
he replied, “I would be glad to do 
it”? “Certainly,” I answered; “but 
what about the man who sits by your 
side in the board of directors of your 
corporation who you know is not a 
Christian? What about him?” 
Quickly he answered, “That is an- 
other story.” Then I said to him, 
simply as an illustration to all the 
rest of the business men present, 
“Mr. D., take somebody your size.” 
—Epworth Herald. 


303. Personal Work—Persistent 


“What else could I do?” So said 
a frail young girl of seventeen. 

The home of this young heroine, 
Miss Esther Fuller, is in Corpus 
Christi, Texas. The flood came in 
the fall of 1919, and she and her 
brother, a lad of eleven, found 
themselves in the water. The boy 
became unconscious, and for five 
hours before being rescued the girl 
swain about in the surging waters, 
supporting her little brother. Hap- 
pily her favorite sport had been 
swimming, according to the account 
in the newspapers. 

“T couldn’t leave him, could I?” 


PERSONAL WORK 


was the expression of the girl when 
her heroic conduct was being com- 
mended. 

What a motto for those who are 
seeking to win others for their Mas- 
ter’s service. 

Those who endeavor to “rescue the 
perishing” will find that the Lord 
will provide strength for their task. 
Pluckily and hopefully they may con- 
tinue their labor of love. Unfalter- 
ing faith in the saving Christ leads 
the Christian worker to exclaim, “I 
couldn’t leave him, could I?” Be- 
cause of such holy daring many have 
been reclaimed from the ways of sin. 
——W. J. Hart. 


304. Sacrifice and Song 


2 Chron. 29: 27. “And when the 
burnt offering began, the song of the 
Lord began also.” 

Here is a guiding sentence from 
the Word of God, a good test for a 
sermon, “And when the burnt offer- 
ing began, the song of the Lord be- 
gan also.” The song began with the 
sacrifice. Joy is wedded to consecra- 
tion. When life becomes sacrificial, 
song is awakened in the soul. This is 
a part of the divine plan for the chil- 
dren of men. Song breaks out in 
service. There are motor cars fitted 
with electric light, but the light is 
conditioned upon movement. The 
car generates the power as it runs; 
a long stop and the light goes out. 
Joy dies out when we are idle. We 
generate it as we serve. We begin 
to sing the song of the Lord when 
we spend ourselves in the labor of 
his kingdom. Let us take up some 
bit of work—the personal care of 
somebody else, or some service in 
the city, or some kind of interest 
among needy people far away. Let 
us take up the yoke of the Lord 
Jesus and draw our share of the 
world’s burden, and so “enter into 
the joy of the Lord.” 


305. Sanctification 
Two men were arguing about sanc- 


125 


tification. “Was it a crisis or a 
process?” asked one. The other man 
replied by asking a question. 

“How did you come from London 
to Keswick?” “I came by train,” his 
friend replied. “And did the train 
bring you by one sudden jump into 
Keswick?” “Oh, no! I came along 
more and more.” “Yes, I see. But 
first you got into the carriage, and 
how did you do that—was it more 
and more?” “No, I just stepped in.” 
“Exactly. That is the crisis; and 
you journeyed along more and more 
till you were at your destination; 
this was the process.”—Expository 
Times. 


306. Serve—Free to 


“Free to serve!” These words 
were uttered by a thoughtful woman 
as she saw a great vessel loosed 
from its stays and plough its way 
into the ocean. In the water only 
could it find its native element. It 
was in bondage until it was launched. 
It found its freedom in its prepared- 
ness for service. 

A man is like that ship. He is 
not free when he is his own, with- 
held from God. His truest freedom 
comes by submission, his emancipa- 
tion by surrender; he has a man’s 
will only when he submits his will 
to God’s will. God’s will is the 
ocean to him, his native element. 
Once in that element, once fully 
yielded to God, he, like the ship in 
the ocean, is indeed free. He is 
“free to serve,” and in serving finds 
his highest liberty. 


307. Service—Abundant 

The recent death of Dr. Robert 
Dawbarn, an eminent surgeon of 
New York, will be more notable 
among medical men than among 
others, but there is one interesting 
story told about him which is worth 
passing on. In sewing up a wound 
after an operation, one of his stu- 
dents observed that he always tied 
three knots where the custom was to 


126 


tie only two. Asked about it, Dr. 
Dawbarn replied, “The third is my 


sleeping knot; it may not be neces-. 


sary to tie it, but it makes the matter 
that much safer, and I find I sleep 
better for it.” That is only one more 
instance of the beauty of doing just 
a little more than any one could prop- 
erly demand, going the second mile, 
as our Lord put it. Most men are 
able to sleep better after such an 
experience. There is danger in let- 
ting other people determine what one 
shall do, and the danger is more seri- 
ous that it will lead to under-doing 
than to over-doing.—Continent. 


308. Service—Continuous 


Men and women of kindly impulses 
are found everywhere, and it would 
be unjust to cast discredit on the 
friendly souls all over the world who 
lend a helping hand out of pure 
friendliness and human _ kindness. 
But a test of any good thing is its 
enduring quality. This, on no less 
authority than the judgment of Miss 
Jane Addams of Hull House, Chi- 
cago, is a characteristic peculiar to 
Christian workers. Here are her 
words, quoted not long ago in a 
newspaper account of an interview 
in which she was asked upon whom 
she relied for volunteer unsalaried 
workers, “creediess, altruists or 
church members.” Her answer is 
most significant. She replied: “They 
are all Christians from evangelical 
churches. I have had a good many 
‘altruists’ try it, but I never knew 
any slum worker to stand the wear 
and tear of our work for over three 
weeks unless inspired by Christian 
Love.” 


309. Service—Double 


“Set your candle before the look- 
ing-glass,” said a dear, quaint old 
lady. “Don’t you know you get al- 
most the light of two candles that 
way?” This thought was carried out 
by a poor sewing woman, who had 
few pleasures to brighten her dull, 


PERSONAL WORK 


gray life. But whenever she be- 
came the happy possessor of a flower 
she set it before her mirror, and 
thus her beauty-loving eyes had two 
flowers to enjoy. One woman, whose 
garden annually overflowed into all 
her neighbors’ houses, said: “It is 
give or die!” Share the lovely, fra- 
grant blossoms; let them carry their 
sweet messages into life’s desert, 
shadowed places, and your own gar- . 
den will smile in loveliness until frost 
comes to banish the outdoor beauty. 
Pleasures gratefully accepted from 
the Giver of all true pleasure, and 
pleasures shared with others, are 
pleasures doubled. Can we not al- 
ways set our candle before a looking- 
glass?—Southern Cross. 


gio. Service—Double 


“You are always working,” I ex- 
claimed, as I entered the office of a 
business friend. “How many hours 
do you work each day?” “Twenty- 
four,” he replied with a smile. Then 
more seriously, “I became interested 
in missions and determined to go to 
China, but my father died and his 
business was in such a state that no 
outsider could carry it on. My 
mother, sisters, and younger brother 
were dependent upon the profits of 
the house, so I was obliged to remain 
here. I then took the support of a 
native preacher in China as my sub- 
stitute. In that way I work twenty- 
four hours a day, for my representa- 
tive there is working while I sleep.” 
—Oriental Missionary. Standard. 

This man is like the angels in 
heaven, “serving day and night.” 


311. Service—Fearless 


General Frederick Funston, who 
died quite recently, has been de- 
scribed by his superiors as abso- 
lutely fearless. Ever ready to plunge 
into danger, he cared little whether 
his force equaled that of his oppo- 
nent. One day, the story goes, when 
it appeared certain the Filipinos 
would destroy three companies under 


PERSONAL WORK 


Funston’s command, General Harri- 
son Gray Otis inquired of the col- 
onel how long he could hold his posi- 
tion. “Until I am mustered out,” 
Funston replied, and he made good. 


giz. Service—Forgotten 

A little fellow in the slum section 
of a large city was induced to attend 
a mission Sunday School, and by 
and by became a Christian. He 
seemed quite bright and settled in his 
new Christian faith and life, but 
some one, surely in a thoughtless 
mood, tried to test or shake his 
simple faith in God, asking him, “If 
God loves you, why doesn’t he take 
better care of you? Why doesn’t he 
tell some one to send you warm 
shoes and some coal and _ better 
food?” The little fellow thought a 
moment, then with tears starting in 
his eyes, said, “I guess he does tell 
somebody, but somebody forgets.’ 
Without knowing it, the boy touched 
the sore point in the church’s history. 
I wonder if it is the sore point with 
- you or me. 


313. Service—Greatness of 


Two brothers, Ahmed and Omar, 
wished to do something to perpetu- 
ate their memory. Omar cut from 
the quarry a great obelisk, and lifted 
it up beside the highway, and carved 
his name upon it, with many other 
inscriptions. And there it stood for 
ages, a splendid monument, but of 
no use to the world. Ahmed digged 
a well beside the desert highway and 
planted palm trees beside it. And in 
the course of time the spot became 
a beautiful oasis where the weary 
traveler stopped to quench his thirst 
and to feed upon the fruit and to 
rest beneath the shade of the tall 
palms. And all who passed that way 
blessed the name of Ahmed the 
Good. The story illustrates two 
plans of life. One is to make for 
yourself a great name, as high as the 
obelisk of Omar, and as useless. The 
other is to make your life like an 


127 


oasis where the weary may find rest 
and comfort and refreshment. 


314. Service—Humble 


A minister called one day and 
found the mother of a large family 
at the wash tub. 

“Excuse me,” he said, “I see you 
are doing the Lord’s work. I will 
not hinder you.” 

“I never do the Lord’s work. I 
leave that for fine folks with plenty 
of time and money. I never go to 
church.” 

“Church! I said nothing about go- 
ing to church. I said you were 
working for God.” 

“T’m not, I’m washing.” 

“Well, what is that but working for 
God? Whom are you washing for?” 

“My family.” 

“And don’t you call it working for 
God when you work for your family? © 
If your neighbor were ill and could 
not do her washing or have it done, 
and you did it for her, would you 
not feel you were doing a great 
Christian service?” 

Would it not take some of the 
weariness out of household drudgery 
if we felt we were as truly serving 
God in it as if we were doing what 
the fine folks with plenty of time and 
money are doing? 


315. Service—Intelligent 


Rev. E. P. Hill in a recent address, 
speaking on the question, “What 
have you done that will stand the 
light of eternity?” said: “Think how 
many live like a sewing woman, sew- 
ing all day long, and then suddenly 
discovering that her needle is not 
threaded. How many like a man 
pushing from the shore at night, and 
after rowing till his hands were sore 
wonders why he has not reached the 
opposite shore, and as the morning 
comes and as night is lifted, to his 
amazement he discovers his boat is 
tied to a post. Life is like a bag 
full of holes, things are put in, but at 
last nothing is seen. ‘Wherefore be 


128 


steadfast, always abounding in the 
work of the Lord.” 


316. Service—Jesus Demands 


A man said to me the other day, 
“I’m as good as most church-mem- 


bers.” And I nearly said, “Heavens, 
what do I care if you are! Good- 
ness counts for so little.’ And it 


does. The Gospel cry is for service. 
The Gospel goes far beyond the 
Sinaitic demand for righteousness, 
has but little patience with the naked 
“Thou-shalt-nots” of Moses. Look 
at Jesus. He was something far 
higher. The soul of Jesus craved 
service. Seeing the sin in the world 
he needs must die for it, beholding 
the woe in the world he needs must 
suffer with it. He was born to fight 
men’s battles. The Greeks pictured 
love as the most boyish of the gods, 
plump, pleasant, smiling. T hey were 
shallow-eyed. Love is the haggard 
virtue. Love’s eyes are bleared by 
watching; love’s face is wizened by 
self-abnegation; love can be trusted, 
because love always hungers for the 
cross, love serves. Christ asks of 
you not goodness but Love. 


317. Service—Unselfish 


General Grant had been for sev- 
eral months in front of Petersburg, 
apparently accomplishing nothing, 
while General Sherman had captured 
Atlanta, and completed his grand 
“march to the sea.” Then arose a 
strong cry to promote Sherman to 
Grant’s position as lieutenant-general. 
Hearing of it, Sherman wrote to 
Grant, “I have written to John Sher- 
man (his brother) to stop it. I 
would rather have you in command 
than any one else. I should em- 
phatically decline any commission cal- 
culated to bring us into rivalry.” 
Grant replied, “No one would be 
more pleased with your advancement 
that I; and if you should be placed 
in my position, and I put subordinate, 
it would not change our relations in 
the least. I would make the same 


PERSONAL WORK 


exertion to support you that you 
have done to support me, and I would 
do all in my power to make your 
cause win.”—(O. S. Marden, “Archi- 
tects of Fate.”)—James Hastings. 


318. Service—Unselfish 


Matt. 19: 27. “Peter said, What 
then shall we have?” One day when 
Jesus and the disciples were cross- 
ing a field covered with stones the 
Master said, “If each of you would 
carry away a stone it would give 
room for grass and trees to grow.” 
To please him they picked up as 
many stones as they could carry and 
journeyed on till the sweat rolled 
down their faces. Not so Peter: he 
could see no profit in this, so he car- 
ried a pebble about the size of an 
egg. John carried a huge boulder, 
so large that only his love for the 
Master enabled him to bear it. When 
they reached the other side of the 
field, John said, “Master, we are hun- 
gry and we have no bread.” Jesus 
said, “Those that work will always 
have bread.” He lifted his hands 
and blessed the stones and lo, they 
turned to bread. All had plenty ex- 
cept Peter. On the return journey 
they came to the same field. With- 
out waiting for a reminder they 
again took up stones, Peter bearing 
the largest of all. He toiled on in 
the hot sun, thinking of the feast 
he would have on the other side. On 
the far side flowed the Jordan. When 
they reached its bank Jesus said, 
“Tet none do good for the hope of 
reward; throw the stones into the 
river”? Thus did St. Peter fast a 
whole day and thereby learn a les- 
son: we should do good, not for 
the hope of reward, but because this 
is right. Righteousness is its own 
reward. 


319. Sorrow—Sanctified 

Jolly Harry Lauder had a heart so 
filled with merriment that for years 
he has been setting all the world 


PERSONAL WORK 


a-laughing with his rollicking songs. 
But a great darkness fell upon Harry 
Lauder. As he left the theater one 
night he received a message that his 
only son had been killed at the 
front in France. It was a crushing 
blow, for the boy was the idol of his 
father’s heart. But the Scotch come- 
dian turned to God for comfort. A 
few weeks later he was canceling 
lucrative engagements and going to 
France with the Y. M. C. A. forces 
to sing gospel songs to the soldiers 
and to bear his witness for Jesus. 
Commenting on his own experience 
Lauder said: “When a great sorrow 
overtakes any man there are three 
things that he may do. He may sour 
on life, or he may try to drown his 
sorrow in drink, or he may turn to 
God. I have chosen the third path.” 
Would to God that all who pass 
through the night of sorrow might 
make the same choice, and find the 
same light dawning in their lives!— 
Selected. 


g20. Souls—Hand-Picked 


The princely Bishop Warren was 
led to an open confession, while a 
freshman at college, through a Sat- 
urday morning’s stroll with a junior. 
Bishop Bashford tells of a senior in 
Ohio Wesleyan convicted because of 
failure to do personal work. He 
made a list of sixteen students and 
began to work for them. All were 
converted and six entered the minis- 
try. A traveling man asked a busi- 
ness man for the privilege of put- 
ting him on a prayer list. He per- 
mitted it but laughingly scoffed. He 
was, however, converted and became 
the great Young Men’s Christian As- 
sociation worker, S. M. Sayford, 
who won C. K. Ober, who won John 
R. Mott. Dr. Chapman tells of his 
ignorant Irish janitor, who prayed 
for and claimed the Holy Spirit’s 
power and then in a few months led 
sixty men to Christ. Bishop Berry 
was led to Christ by two young 
friends who took him into his 


129 


father’s barn and held a prayer meet- 
ing.—Bishop McDowell. 


321. Sympathy—Wise 

A little news item read thus: 

The doors which open from the 
sidewalk into the lobby of a big 
building are heavy ones and are very 
hard to open. Yesterday a little 
hunchback stepped out of an ele- 
vator on the first floor, followed by 
a great big man. The hunchback 
reached the doors first and threw 
himself against one. Although he 
pushed with all his might he 
couldn’t open it. Chagrined, he 
stepped back, and the big man stepped 
up. Noticing the look of humilia- 
tion on the face of the little fellow, 
the big man said: 

“T’ve got a sore wrist. Come on; 
let’s see if we both can’t open it.” 

The hunchback and the big man 
both pushed on the door, and of 
course it opened. The two went out 
smiling. 

As this man helped so a Greater 
sympathizes and helps. 


g22. Time—Redeem the 


According to a recent press dis- 
patch two men, William Bell and 
Jacob Rosenwasser, who are under 
sentence of death at Ossining, N. Y., 
feel that they would be deprived of 
an hour of life if they were electro- 
cuted on day light saving time, and 
so they have applied to the warden 
to have the clock in the death house 
returned to standard time. 

How precious even an hour may be 
under certain circumstances! It is 
said that when Queen Elizabeth of 
England was dying she exclaimed, 
“All my possession for a moment of 
time!” But time cannot be bribed 
even by a monarch. 

If the two men who are now plead- 
ing for an additional hour of life 
had always made a proper use of the 
time at their disposal the probability 
is that they would be little con- 


130 


cerned now about the additional hour 
to which they think they are en- 
titled. They would understand that 
“the less of earth the more of 
heaven.” 


g23. What Did You DoP 

Did you give ‘him a lift? 
Brother of Man 

And bearing about all the burden he 

_ can. 

“Did you give him a smile? 
downcast and blue, 

And the smile would have helped 
him to battle it through, 

Did you give him your hand? He 
was slipping down hill, 

And the world, so I fancied, was 
using him ill. 

Did you give him a word? Did you 
show him the road, 

Or did you just let him go on with 
his load? 


He’s a 


He was 


Did you help him along? He’s a 
sinner like you. 

But the grasp of your hand might 

.. have carried him through. 

Did you bid him good cheer? Just a 
word and a smile 

Were what he most needed that last 
weary mile. 

Did you know what he bore in that 
burden of cares 

That is every man’s load, and that 
sympathy shares? 

Did you try to find out what he 
needed from you, 

Or did you just leave him to battle 
it through? 


Do you know what it means to be 
losing the fight 

When a lift just in time might set 
everything right? 

Do you know what it means—just 
the clasp of a hand 

When a man’s borne about all a 
man ought to stand? 

Did you ask what it was, why the 
quivering lip 

And the glistening tears down the 
pale cheek that slip? 


PERSONAL WORK 


Were you Brother of his when the 
time came to be? 

Did you offer to help him, or didn’t 
you see? 


Don’t you know it’s the part of a 
Brother of Man 

To find what the grief is and help 
when you can? 

Did you stop when he asked you to 
give him a lift 

Or were you so busy you left him to 
shift? 

Oh, I know what you mean—what 
you say may be true, 

But the test of your manhood is, 
What Did You Do? 

Did you reach out a hand? Did you 
find him the road, 

Or did you just let him go by with 
his load?—James W. Foley. 


324. Wanderer—Seeking the 

An American bishop, speaking of 
the personal love and earnestness 
which in Christian work prove, with 
God’s blessing, so successful, related 
that a youth belonged to a Bible- 
class, but at last the time came when 
he thought fit to discontinue his at- 
tendance, and to otherwise occupy 
his time. ‘The class assembled, but 
his place was empty, and the leader 
looked for the familiar face in vain. 
He could not be content to conduct 
the Bible-reading as usual, ignorant 
as to the condition and whereabouts 
of the missing one. “Friends,” he 
said, “read, sing, and pray; my work 
is to seek and find a stray sheep;” 
and he started off on the quest. “The 
stray sheep is before you,” said the 
bishop to his hearers. “My teacher 
found me, and I could not resist his 
pleading; I could not continue to 
wander and stray whilst I was sought 
so tenderly.’—The Quiver. 


325. Winning Souls 

I remember speaking once with a. 
professor of the United Free 
Church, of Scotland—a man of sane 
and well balanced judgment—about 


PRAYER 


Henry Drummond and his remark- 
able work among the Edinburgh stu- 
dents. “Drummond,” he said, “sim- 
ply charmed men into the kingdom. 
When he spoke he cast such a spell 
about some that for a time they 
seemed half dazed; when they recov- 
ered it was to find themselves in the 
kingdom. But,” he added seriously, 
“there was no mistake about it; They 
Were There.”—George Jackson. 


326. Work—Plenty of 


During one of the great battles of 
the Civil War a recruit, who had lost 
his company in the tumult of strife, 
approached General Sheridan and 
timidly asked where he should “step 
in.” “Step in?” roared Sheridan. 
“Step in anywhere; there’s fighting 
along the line.” 


PRAYER 


327. Guidance—Divine 

When Lincoln was in sore straits 
as to what course to pursue during 
the Civil War, he went to God in 
prayer, and often remarked that he 
could not have succeeded in his 
great task without divine guidance. 
In the midst of President Wilson’s 
difficulties in the present interna- 
tional negotiations he, too, has felt 
the need of divine guidance. When 
Mr. Wilson arrived at a recent cab- 
inet meeting his face wore a solemn 
look. It was evident that serious af- 
fairs of the nation were on his mind. 
He said to the cabinet members: “I 
don’t know whether you men believe 
in prayer or not. I do. Let us pray 
and ask the help of God.” And the 
President of the United States fell 
upon his knees with the members of 
the cabinet, while the President of- 
fered a prayer to the Almighty for 
- help. 


328. Inspiration Given 


When Haydn was composing the 
oratorio of the Creation he was seen 


131 


kneeling by the organ praying for 
inspiration. Among the grand chor- 
uses in the realm of music are The 
Heavens are Telling, and Let There 
be Light; and when he heard them 
for the last time as music is rarely 
rendered on this earth, he exclaimed 
in tears: “Not mine, not mine; it 
came from above.” Haydn was right. 
One voice has made the grandest of 
all music. The Voice that inspired 
Haydn to compose the Creation, and 
Handel the Hallelujah Chorus tuned 
Perronet’s heart to sing All Hail 
the Power of Jesus’ Name. 


329. Practice Prayer 


Fletcher of Madeley, a_ great 
teacher of a century and a half ago, 
used to lecture to the young theo- 
logical students. He was one of the 
fellow-workers with Wesley, and a 
man of most. saintly character. When 
he had lectured on one of the great 
topics of the Word of God, such as 
the Fullness of God’s Holy Spirit or 
on the power and blessing that He 
meant His people to have he would 
close the lecture, and say, “That is 
the theory; now will those who want 
the practice come along up to my 
room?” And again and again they 
closed their books and went away to 
his room, where the hour’s theory 
would be followed by one or two 
hours of prayer. (Hubert Brooke’s 
“One Faith and One Family.”)— 
James Hastings. 


3370. Pray—Teach Us to 


Dean Brown of Yale University in 
his 1923 Gladden Lectures quotes the 
following historical incident: “When 
General Grant was slowly dying of 
cancer at Mt. McGregor, an old 
friend, General Howard, was visit- 
ing him. He was speaking to Grant 
of the distinguished service he had 
rendered the country, and how he 
would always be held in high esteem 
for his part in preserving the Union, 
but Grant waved all this aside; he 
was thinking of other and higher 


132 


things. He knew the piety of his 
old comrade, that it was as genuine 
as his valor. ‘Howard,’ he said, ‘tell 
me something more about prayer.” 

The greatest experience that can 
come to any of us is to talk with 
God in simple, unaffected prayer as a 
man talks with his friend. 


331. Pray—Why 

I remember speaking in the Boston 
noonday meeting, in the old Brom- 
field Street M. E. Church on this 
subject one week. Perhaps I was 
speaking rather positively. And at the 
close of the meeting one day a keen, 
cultured Christian woman whom 
I knew came up for a word. She 
said, “I do not think we can pray 
like that”? And I said, “Why not?” 
She paused a moment, and her well- 
controlled agitation revealed in eye 
and lip told me how deeply her 
thoughts were stirred. Then she said 
quietly: “I have a brother. He is 
not a Christian. The theater, the 
wine, the club, the cards—that is his 
life. And he laughs at me. I would 
rather than anything else that my 
brother were a Christian. But,” she 
said, and here both her keenness and 
the training of her early teaching 
came in, “I do not think I can pray 
positively for his conversion, for he 
is a free agent, is he not? And 
God will not save a man against his 
will? 1’ ‘said! ito her: “Man is a 
free agent, to use the old phrase, so 
far as God is concerned; utterly, 
wholly free. And he is the most en- 
slaved agent on the earth, so far as 
sin and selfishness and prejudice are 
concerned. The purpose of our pray- 
ing is not to force or coerce his will; 
never that. It is to free his will of 
the warping influences that now twist 
it awry. It is to get the dust out of 
his eyes so that his sight shall be 
clear. And once he is free, able to 
see aright, to balance things without 
prejudice, the whole probability 1s 
in favor of his using his will to 
choose the only right.”—(S. D. Gor- 


PRAYER 


don’s “Quiet Talks on Prayer.” )— 
James Hastings. 


332. Prayer and Play 


Ed. Garbisch, captain of the United 
States Military Academy football 
team which returned yesterday from 
its victory over the Naval Academy 
team, revealed the fact that the 
West Point cadets have prayed be- 
fore every game this season, and af- 
ter Saturday’s game each player 
snatched off his headgear and gave 
thanks to God. 

“We did not pray for victory,” 
said Garbisch, “but only that we 
might acquit ourselves like men. At 
the conclusion of Saturday’s game 
every man on the Army eleven tore 
off his headgear and thanked God 
fervently for the victory.” 

The cadets got back to West Point 
at 4:45 Pp. M. They were accorded 
the honors which other triumphant 
Army teams have received for the 
last twenty-five years. 

The cadet corps was waiting for 
them with a band and the venerable 
stage coach which has been the car 
of victory for generations of West 
Pointers. 

Into the vehicle the players were 
crammed, and then with a mighty 
heave the cadets, swarming at ropes, 
started the creaking anachronism up 
the hill. They trundled it about the 
“plains,” now covered with snow, 
while the band played inspiriting airs, 
and when they stopped Garbisch 
mounted the top of the coach and de- 
livered his valedictory as football 
captain. Henry R. Baxter, ’26, has 
been elected captain for next season. 
—Every Evening, Wilmington, Dela- 
ware, December I, 1024. 


333. Prayer and Practice. 


The bride came down stairs the 
first morning after the return from 
the honeymoon, patted the silver, 
looked around, pushed the button 
calling the cook, and when that 


PRAYER 


worthy made her appearance said, 
“Fred—I beg your pardon, Mr. 
Thompson—will be down in a few 
minutes and we will have prayers. 
We want you to join us.” “But I’m 
not religious,” said the cook, “I ain’t 
been to church for five years. It’s all 
right for you to have prayers; I 
shouldn’t respect you if you didn’t; 
but I don’t want to come in.” “Well, 
come for a week anyway, won’t you?” 
said the young mistress, and the cook 
The head of the house came 


came. 
down, read a chapter—he was a 
beautiful reader—then they knelt 


while he prayed. It was a phono- 
graph prayer, one he had heard his 
father offer a hundred times. It 
had nothing original in it. The next 
morning he prayed for “the sick and 
afflicted.” After he was gone the 
cook asked, “Who’s sick?” “I don’t 
know as anybody is,’ replied her 
mistress. “Why do you ask?” “Why 
the master prayed for the sick; I 
wondered who it was; and, as this 
is my afternoon off, I thought I’d 
take a can of currant jelly round.” 
She never suspected, of course, that 
it was just a prayer and didn’t mean 
anything personal, only the sick in 
general. It was the day to pray for 
the sick. When Fred came home at 
noon, his wife said, “Who is sick?” 
“T don’t know; why?” was the re- 
ply. “Cook wanted to know whom 
you were praying for this morning. 
It is her afternoon off and she wants 
to go and take a can of currant jelly 
to the sick, whoever it is.” Mr. 
Thompson meditated, then said, 
“Come to think of it there is the car- 
penter down at the shop who broke 
his leg. They are talking of giving 
him a purse. If I’m going to main- 
tain my credit with the cook, I guess 
V’ll have to do something besides 
pray for the sick. I'll stop on my 
way back to business.” 

Jesus prayed that they might all 
be one. And friends, we have got 
to commence living up to that prayer 
or discredit the church of Jesus 


133 


Christ before the world—Rev. O. P. 
Griffin. 


334. Prayer and Praise 

‘A servant girl in great anxiety of 
soul sought the help of her clergyman. 
All his explanations of the gospel, 
and applications of it to her case, 
failed to bring peace. She said she 
had tried to pray, but dared not 
speak to God. “If you cannot pray,” 
said the clergyman, “perhaps you 
can praise.” He went on to show 
that it was God who had graciously 
begun to stir her soul, giving her 
concern about salvation, and some 
feeling of sorrow for her sins. He 
told her that she would greatly add: 
to her sins if she failed to thank him 
for this grace; but if she praised and 
blessed God for what he had done, 
she would soon find that he who had 
begun the good work would carry 
it on to the praise and glory of his 
grace. And to commence this exer- 
cise, he recommended her to go 
home singing the glorious 103d 
Psalm, “O thou, my soul, bless God 
the Lord.” She departed with a 
light heart, singing as she went; 
“and,” said the minister in telling 
the story, “she is singing still, prais- 
ing and praying and rejoicing with 
joy unspeakable, and full of glory.” 


335. Prayer and Revivals 


The great revival in New York in 
1858-9 began in answer to the ear- 
nest believing prayers of one man. 
After long waiting upon God, asking 
Him to show him what He would 
have him to do, and becoming more 
and more confident that God would 
show him the way through which 
hundreds might be influenced for 
their souls’ good, he at last began a 


noon-day prayer-meeting. The first 
half-hour no one came, and he 
prayed through it alone. At half- 


past twelve the step of a solitary 
individual was heard on the stairs; 
others came, until six made up the 
whole company. His record of that 


134 


meeting was, “The Lord was with 
us to bless us.” Of those six, one 


was a Presbyterian, one a Baptist, an- 


other a Congregationalist, and an- 
other a Reformed Dutch—The 
Power of Prayer. 


336. Prayer a Key 

When Queen Victoria was open- 
ing the Town Hall of Sheffield she 
had put into her hand a little golden 
key, and she was told as she sat in 
her carriage that she only had to 
turn the golden key and in a moment 
the Town Hall gates of Sheffield 
would fly open. In obedience to the 
authority of experts who gave her 
the directions, she turned the golden 
key, and in a moment, by the action 
of electric wires, the Town Hall 
gates of Sheffield flew open. Exactly 
in the same way Jesus Christ must 
know one thing, if He knows anything, 
and that is, what opens heaven’s 
gates. He must know that; He must 
know what key it is which opens 
heaven’s gates; and in His teaching 
He reiterated over and over again, 
as if He thought that this was one 
of the things we should find it hard- 
est to believe, “Ask, and it shall be 
given you; seek, and ye shall find ; 
knock, and it shall be opened unto 
you.” And I say that if we are justi- 
fied in believing in the Divinity of 
Christ, then we are justified in going 
a step further, and saying that His 
authority is good enough to make 
us believe that the golden key of 
prayer, if we use it, will open the 
gates of heaven. (Bishop Winning- 
ton Ingram’s “Banners of the Chris- 
tian Faith.”’)—James Hastings. 


337. Prayer Answered 


Dan Crawford tells of an experi- 
ence he and his party had while re- 
turning to his African mission field 
after a furlough. A stream to be 
crossed was in flood, and there were 
no boats. Haste in getting back was 
important. The missionaries camped 
and prayed. After a time a tall tree 


PRAYER 


which had battled with the river for 
a century, perhaps, began to totter, 


and then fell—clear across the 
stream. “The Royal Engineers of 
Heaven,” Mr. Crawford said, “had 


laid a pontoon bridge for God’s ser- 
vants.’—Sent by the Rev. J. A. Clark. 


338. Prayer Station 

In front of a store that I pass I 
have frequently noticed an electric 
automobile being “charged” from a 
convenient switch. Ever so often 
this fine piece of machinery and per- 
fected storage batteries must wait for 
the propelling power to make it ef- 
fective. 

It is a strikingly true picture of 
the Christian. Effective power to do 
the will of God can come only by 
tarrying each day until we be endued. 
—Merlin Fairfax. 


339. Prayer—A Constant 
Privilege 
In the vestibule of St. Peter’s, at 
Rome, is a doorway which is walled 
up and marked with a cross. It is 
opened but four times in a century; 
on Christmas-eve, once in twenty- 
five years, the Pope approaches it in 
princely state, with the retinue of 
cardinals in attendance, and begins 
the demolition of the door by strik- 
ing it thrice with a silver hammer. 
When the passage is opened the mul- 
titude pass into the nave of the 
cathedral, and up to the altar by an 
avenue which the majority of them 
never entered thus before, and never 
will enter thus again. Imagine that 
the way to the throne of grace were 
like the Porta Santa, inaccessible 
save once in a quarter of a century, 
on the 2sth of December! With 
what solicitude we should wait for 
the coming of the holy day !—Clerical 
Library. 


340. Prayer—Child’s 

“Some years ago, one of our great 
expresses was rushing through the 
night, and the engine-driver had to 


PRAYER 


get off his secure place to do some- 
thing to his engine, and missed his 
footing and fell. How he saved 
himself the never knew, but he 
caught hold of something on the en- 
gine and swung himself back again 
to a place of safety. When he 
reached home it was the early hours 
of the morning. He took off his 
boots and went quietly upstairs, not 
to awaken his sleeping children, and 
as he passed the room where his lit- 
tle daughter was sleeping the door 
was burst open, and out she rushed 
in her little nightdress, flung herself 
into his arms, put her arms round 
his neck and her cheek against his 
and said, ‘Oh! daddy, daddy, I am 
glad to see you. I had such an ugly 
dream. I dreamt you were killed on 
the railway, and I got out of bed, and 
I knelt down, and I asked God to 
take care of you. That strong man 
believes that God heard the prayer of 
that little child, and that to her he 
owes his life, and so do. I.” (Bishop 
G. H. S. Walpole.)—James Hastings. 


341. Prayer—Child’s 

Proverbs 20: 11. “Even a child 
maketh himself known by his do- 
ings.’ A clerical friend was on a 
Pullman car a few months ago. He 
found himself with men who were 
returning from the races. Their 
language was shockingly irreverent. 
Their conversation showed _ that 
nearly all of them had been gambling. 
When the time came for retiring a 
little boy was made ready for his 
berth. The tiny fellow stood in the 
aisle of the sleeper, clad in his wee 
pajamas. Ere he climbed into his bed 
the child looked doubtfully about as 
if he were hesitating. Then he over- 
came his timidity, knelt at the side of 
his berth, folded his hands, and be- 
gan to pray in a childish treble, 
heard all over the car, “Now I lay 
me down to sleep!” You will all 
know that for a time profanity 
ceased; that all talks of bets won or 
lost died into silence! The eyes of 


135 


the hardened men were moist with 
tears. One rough fellow pointed to 
the kneeling child and said, “I would 
like to know what that little chap 
has that I have lost.”—Bishop Ed- 
win H. Hughes. 


342. Prayer—Child’s Saving 


You never know where a prayer’s 
power will land—in a human heart 
that needs it, or with God who hears 
it. Norman Macleod tells of a boy’s 
cry to Heaven for the sake of a 
drunken man who used to come to 
see him as he lay sick and dying. 
When he had drink, he used to pass 
the door softly, ashamed to look the 
little one in the face. But one night 
he heard the thin voice beating at 
Heaven’s door with its cry, “Oh, 
Father! don’t let him be drunken any 
more, he is so good and kind, and I 
love him.” The strong man listened, 
caught at the heart, and when he 
entered he went down upon his knees 
beside the dying child, and said 
through big, bitter tears, “Were you 
praying for a waif like me?” “Yes,” 
said the boy, “I was praying for you. 
I aye do that. You’re no a waif?” 
—he didn’t know the word—“you’re 
a man.” Many a night as he drove 
his cab along the weary streets, out 
of the grave came that pinched face, 
lit by love, to his heart, and the 
haunting, “You’re no a waif, you’re 
a man,” made him at last stand firm, 
rooted in manhood through a child’s 
weak dying prayer, heard in a city 
stair by night. (L. Maclean Watt’s 
“God’s Altar Stairs.”)—James Has- 
tings. 


343. Prayer—Communion in 


An English minister tells us how 
he went to see a dying man one day, 
a saint who had a clear and tena- 
cious mind; and as he entered the 
room where the man was, the man 
suddenly broke out in the words: “TI 
have one great sorrow. I enjoy 
communion with God, blessed and 
heavenly communion, but I don’t ask 


136 


for anything, I do not want any- 
thing; is that right?” He said in re- 
ply, “I have watched the children 
when it has been towards the gloam- 
ing, and I have noticed that often 
they dropped their toys and games, 
and went to the mother, who was sit- 
ting by the fire, and the mother 
dropped her work while the children 
nestled up to her and she put her 
arms around them and together they 
looked into the fire; and did not say 
anything, they were too near for 
words.” The man threw up ~his 
hands and said, “I know what you 
mean and I have got it.” And then 
he said with a wan smile, “You know 
you didn’t get nearest to your mother 
when you went to ask her for a shil- 
ling did you?” 


344. Prayer—Countermanding 


It is often a blessing to us that 
God does not always answer our 
prayers, for some are offered with a 
wrong motive. Some are in igno- 
rance of what we really need, and 
others, if we knew all the circum- 
stances, we should be sorry indeed 
if our Father did grant. In Galt, 
Ontario, Dr. Knowles, the Presby- 
terian pastor, was marrying a couple 
in the Manse. During the prayer, 
Dr. Knowles fervently asked God to 
bless the couple with material pros- 
perity and to increase the business of 
the bridegroom. In filling out the 
blanks in the papers to be sent to the 
government, he, of course, asked the 
man’s business, when to the minister’s 
horror, he replied, “I keep a saloon.” 
In telling the story afterwards. Dr. 
Knowles said that as he wrote the 
occupation he whispered, “Lord, you 
needn’t answer that prayer.” 


345. Prayer—Faith in 


It is said that a man once asked 
Alexander to give him some money 
to portion off a daughter. The King 
bade him go to his treasurer and 
demand what he pleased. He went 


PRAYER 


and demanded an enormous sum. 
The treasurer was startled, said he 


could not part with so much with- 


out an express order, and went to 
the King, and told him that he 
thought a small part of the money 
the man had named might serve for 
the occasion. “No,” replied Alexan- 
der; “let him have it all. I like that 
man; he does me honor; he treats 
me like a king, and proves, by what 
he asks, that he believes me to be 
both rich and generous.’ Let us go 
to the throne of grace, and put up 
such petitions as may show that we 
have honorable views of the riches 
and bounty of our King.—Newton. 


346. Prayer—Fear of 


When Ethelred, the Saxon king of 
Northumberland, invaded Wales, and 
was about to give battle to the 
Britons, he noticed, near the enemy, 
a host of unarmed men. He in- 
quired who they were, and what they 
were doing. He was told that they 
were the monks of Bangor, praying 
for the success of their countrymen. 
“Then,” said the Saxon king, “they 
have begun the fight against us. At- 
tack them first.”—James Hastings. 


347. Prayer—Forgiving 

When Dr. Joseph Parker was quite 
a young lad, he was accustomed to 
hold arguments with infidels outside 
the great iron works on Tyneside. 
One day an infidel challenged him 
upon this great passage, and said, 
“What did God do for Stephen?” 
insinuating that if there had been a 
God, He would have interposed to 
rescue him from the hands of his 
foes. Dr. Parker always said he be- 
lieved that it was given to him in the 
same hour what he should say, and 
he answered, “What did God do for 
him? He gave him the power to 
pray for the forgiveness of those 
who stoned him.” It was a great 
answer. (F. B. Meyer.)—James 
Hastings. 


PRAYER 


348. Prayer—God’s Power in 


An engineer in Bolivia brought 
over the Cordilleras the first loco- 
motive ever seen in those latitudes. 
The native Indians came up from the 
Amazon basin to see this sight, and 
sat on their haunches discussing 
what this strange monster could be. 
One said: “It is made to go”; and 
another, “Let’s make it go”; and so 
they got their lassoes out, and las- 
soed the buffers, and then about thirty 
of them began to pull, and drew the 
locomotive some six yards. They 
exclaimed, “Ay-ay-ay-ay Tatai Ta- 
tito.” “The great and little father 
hath enabled us to do something 
wonderful!” 

The next day came the engineer, 
who got up steam in the locomotive 
and hitched a couple of cattle trucks 
on to it, and when the Indian gentle- 
men came, put them into the trucks 
and locked them in. Then he stood 
on the fire-plate of the locomotive, 
and opened the regulator, and let 
steam into the cylinder, and it began 
to move the piston, and the wheel of 
the locomotive; and the locomotive 
carried the Indians along, ten miles an 
hour! I don’t know what they didn’t 
say to their great and little father! 
But they learned this great lesson— 
that locomotives are not made to be 
moved along by outside human 
power, but by means of a power 
within, and so to carry human be- 
ings along. 

And we would have every believer 
understand that prayer is not a ma- 
chine, to be worked by human zeal, 
but by the power of God within. See 
to it that you learn the power of God. 
—A. T. Pierson. 


349. Prayer—Lincoln’s 


Dr. Anderson, a former president 
of Chicago University, once told me 
this story: There was a nurse in 
our family who was employed in the 
Lincoln family during the illness of 
the President’s son. One morning, 


137 


having left the sick room for a few 
moments, she was just returning, 
when to her surprise she heard a 
voice in the room. Looking in she 
beheld Mr. Lincoln kneeling by the 
bedside engaged in prayer. “O God, 
thou knowest how the cares of state 
weigh and how because of it I have 
not been the father I should have 
been. O great Father, spare the boy 
and forgive me for the sin.” 

Coming into the hall and seeing 
the nurse he said, “You heard?” 
“Yes, Mr. President, I heard,” she 
replied. “It is all right,” he said and 
passed on.—M. P. Boynton. 


350. Prayer—Mother’s 


Years ago a devout woman of 
Scotland prayed earnestly that her 
son might be called to the Gospel 
ministry. He grew up to be an ear- 
nest Christian man, and in the very 
morning of that manhood began to 
prepare for the high calling to which 
he seemed destined. But before his 
preparation was complete, he decided 
that he was not called of God to this 
work. He left school and entered 
a bank. He continued to the end of 
his days a financier. He died, suc- 
cessful and rich. The mother’s 
prayer was not granted. 

But when her son’s will was read, 
it was found that his large fortune 
had been left to the endowment of 
what is now the Kentucky Theolog- 
ical Seminary. By this not one, but 
many ministers are given in answer 
to the Scotch mother’s prayer. 


For that prayer, though not 
granted, was answered.—Southern 
Evangelist. 
g51. Prayer of Infidel 


Dr. Knox, Bishop of Manchester, 
preaching on the sands at Blackpool, 
told a story of a miner who called 
himself an infidel. One day in the 
mine some coal began to fall, and 
the man cried out, “Lord, save me.” 
Then a fellow-miner turned to him 
and said, “Ay, there’s nowt like cohs 


138 


0’ coal to knock th’ infidelity out 0’ 
a man.” Yes, men may try to keep 
down the instinct of prayer, but 
there are times in every life when 
it will be heard—James Hastings. 
(G. C. Leader’s “Wanted—a Boy.”) 


352. Prayer—Revenge in 

Little Jack had been so persistently 
naughty that mother just had to give 
him a good spanking, and all that 
afternoon a desire for revenge 
rankled in his little breast. At 
length bedtime came, and kneeling 
down, he said his evening prayer, 
asking a blessing upon all the mem- 
bers of the family individually—ex- 
cept one. Then, rising, he turned to 
his mother with a triumphant look, 
saying as he climbed into bed, “I 
s’pose you noticed you wasn’t in it.” 
—The Christian Guardian. 


353. Prayer—Power of 

It is said of that mighty spirit of 
the Middle Ages, S. Bernard of 
Clairvaux, that he found “on the days 
which he spent rapidly writing and 
was most persuasive, and his own 
schemes were widened or lost in the 
greater purposes of God; anxiety was 
allayed and the power of the Holy 
Spirit to which the had opened his 
heart was felt in every word he 
spake and in his very presence and 
look.” It was in the hours, ay, in 
the whole nights, passed in prayer in 
his church on a remote Cornish cliff 
that perhaps the greatest mission 
preacher of the century won that ex- 
traordinary power which enabled him 
“to bow the hearts of his hearers as 
the heart of one man.” It was in 
those jealously guarded times of 
communion with God, in the heart of 
busy London, and on the plains of 
China and North Africa, that Gen- 
eral Gordon gained the gift of in- 
spiring others with his own high en- 
thusiasm, and of casting a spell alike 
over civilized and savage, over Chris- 
tian and Mohammedan and heathen. 
“A gift,’ says Goethe, “shapes itself 


PRAYER 


in stillness, but a character in the 
tumult of the world.” And the gift 


of spiritual power is the child of sol- 


itude.—F. J. Chavasse. 


354. Prayer—Prevailing 


It is enough to make every 
preacher to cushioned critics and 
listless fashionables turn his back 
on these Gospel-hardened, and “trek” 
for the wilds, to read of Nelson, that 
jewel in Black Rock, whom it was 
Craig’s joy to set in the Master’s 
crown, and to hear of the Gospel- 
hungry gathered round him. You 
remember how Nelson came to Craig 
after the Christmas Eve supper and 
sermon in the camp; “Mr. Craig, are 
you dead sure of this? Will it 
work?” He quoted the precious texts, 
“The Son of Man is come.” “Him 
that cometh.” Then came the terse 
utterance, “If it is no good, it’s hell 
for me,” and the preacher’s counter, 
“Tt it is no good, it is hell for all of 
us.” By and by old man Nelson was 
seen on his knees in the snow, with 
his hands spread upward to the stars. 

One night Graeme noticed a light 
in the stable. He heard the voice 
of one reading. Ina vacant stall, on 
straw, a number of men _ were 
grouped. Sandy was reading. Nel- 
son was kneeling in front of him and 
gazing into the gloom beyond; Bap- 
tiste lay upon his stomach, his chin 
in his hands and his upturned eyes 
fastened upon Sandy’s face; Lachlan 
Campbell sat with his hands clasped 
about his knees, and two other men 
sat near him. Sandy was reading 
the undying story of the prodigal, 
Nelson now and then stopping him 
to make a remark. “Dat young fel- 
ler,” said Baptiste, “wha’s hees nem, 
heh?” “He has no name. It is just 
a parable,” explained Sandy. “He’s 
got no nem? He’s just a parable? 
Das mean nothing?” Nelson ex- 
plained. “Dat young feller, his 
name Baptiste, heh? And de old 
Fadder, he’s le bon Dieu? Bon, das 
good story for me. How you go 


PRAYER 


back? You go to de pries’?” Nelson 
said the book mentioned no priest. 
“You go back in yourself, see?” 
“Non; das so, sure nuff. Ah’—as if 
a light broke in upon him—‘“you go 
in your own self! You make one 
leetle prayer. You say: ‘Le bon Fad- 
der, oh, I want come back! I so 
tire, so hungree, so sorree!’ He say: 
‘Come right long.” Ah, das fuss- 
rate! Nelson, you make one leetle 
prayer for Sandy and me.” And 
Nelson lifted up his face and said: 
“Father, we’re all gone far away; we 
have spent all, we are poor, we are 
tired of it all; we want to come 
back. Jesus came to save us and He 
said if we came He wouldn’t cast us 
out, no matter how bad we were. 
Oh, Jesus Christ, we are a poor lot, 
and I’m the worst of the lot, and 
we're trying to find the way. Show 
us how to get back. Amen.” 


355. Prayer—Security in 


The form of a little boy in the 
coffin surrounded by mourning 
friends. A mason came into the 
room and asked to look at the lovely 
face. “You wonder that I care so 
much,” he said, as the tears rolled 
down his cheeks, “but your boy was 
a messenger of God to me. One 
time I was coming down by a long 
ladder from a very high roof, and 
found your boy close beside me when 
I reached the ground. He looked 
up in my face with childish wonder 
and asked frankly, ‘Weren’t you 
afraid of falling when you were up 
so high?’ and before I had time to 
answer, he said: ‘Oh, I know why 
you were not afraid! You said your 
prayers this morning before you be- 
gan work.’ I had not prayed; but 
I never forgot to pray from that day 
to this, and by God’s blessing, I never 
will.”"—J. W. Porter. 


356. Prayer—Unanswered 
General Gordon, of Atlanta, Ga., 

told me of how the Confederate 

troops prayed for victory before the 


139 


battle of Sharpsburg. The day be- 
fore the battle they prayed earnestly 
that they might be victorious, so 
earnestly that both officers and men 
felt that their prayers would be an- 
swered. General Gordon said that 
many felt satisfied that the Confed- 
erate forces would sweep the Union 
lines, and would be on their way to 
Washington within a week. But the 
next day the battle came off, and in 
results it was one of the most crush- 
ing blows that the Confederates re- 
ceived during the war. General Gor- 
don, who was shot five times, said 
that after the battle the men were 
discouraged. They felt that God was 
on the side of the largest legions. 
Some of the officers suggested that 
it would be better to spend less time 
in praying and more time in manu- 
facturing powder and bullets. The 
suggestion seemed to be a good one 
even to the General. But he told 
me years after that the prayers of 
the Confederates on the day before 
that battle were best answered by 
defeat; that if the Confederates had 
captured Washington and defeated 
the Union our nation would now 
be far down the scale among the 
weaker nations of the earth. -(R. H. 
Conwell’s “How to Live the Christ 
Life.”)—James Hastings. 


357. Prayer—Unceasing 


“Stonewall Jackson,” says E. M. 
Bounds in “Purpose in Prayer,” 
“was. a man. of prayer.) Said 
he, ‘I have so fixed the habit of 
prayer in my mind that I never raise 
a glass of water to my lips without 
asking God’s blessing, never seal a 
letter without putting a word of 
prayer under the seal, never take a 
letter from the post without a brief 
sending of my thoughts heavenward, 
never change my classes in the lec- 
ture-room without a minute’s peti- 
tion for the cadets who go out and 
for those who come in.’” 

It is said of James Gilmour, the 
pioneer missionary to Mongolia. that 


140 


he never used a blotter in writing. 
He used the time to pray while the 
ink was drying on the page he had 
written. 


358. Prayer—Warmth ot 


Mr. Spurgeon was one day show- 
ing some visitors through the Taber- 
nacle. After taking them to the main 
part of the building he said, “Come 
and I’ll show you the heating ap- 
paratus.” Not caring to see that 
they would have declined, but out of 
courtesy they consented. Imagine 
their surprise when he took them to 
a room where four hundred were 
gathered in a prayer meeting. His 
figure of speech was well chosen. 
The church with warmth of spirit 
must have the warmth-producing 
prayer meeting. 


359: Prayers—Father’s 


Here is a story which was told one 
Sunday in an Arran pulpit by one 
who knew the persons it concerned. 
There lived in a quiet village a 
godly man. And he had a wife and 
three sons. His wife died, and the 
burden of bringing up these sons fell 
on him. He cried to God to help him. 
Now, it so happened that in that 
house there was a_ rush-bottomed 
chair, the only chair of that sort in 
the house, and it was at that chair 
this good man knelt when he prayed 
for his boys as well as at family 
prayer. And often when alone he 
spent long whiles on his knees pray- 
ing for their conversion. But he saw 
no change in his sons; they were 
hard, selfish, and worldly. At last 
one by one they all left him, and 
went into business in some great city 
of the land. They prospered in busi- 
ness, but not in religion. But busi- 
ness prosperity is not joy, and pros- 
perity was making them hard. The 
father prayed the more earnestly that 
they might gain their own souls, al- 
though they should lose the whole 
world. But at the end of his days 


PRAYER 


they were not saved. There was an 
old servant who lived in the house, 
and to her he said when he was dy- 


ing, “I will pray now that my death 


may be used by God to save them.” 
Then he died. The three young men 
came home to the funeral. And when 
all was past, they said: “What shall 
we do with the house and the old fur- 
niture?”’ One said: “Let them go to 
the old woman who has taken care of 
him.” But the eldest son said: “Well, 
I consent if only you will allow me 
to get the rush-bottomed chair. I 
never heard prayers like those I 
heard there. I hear those prayers 
still when I am at business. I think 
if I had the chance I would not live 
the prayerless life I am living now.” 
And the other two were softened. 
And with that the Spirit of the Lord 
came upon the eldest brother, and he 
said: “Let us kneel around it once 
more and pray.” And they did. And 
with great crying and tears they 
spent that afternoon together. And 
the end of all was that the two 
younger brothers gave up their busi- 
ness and offered themselves to the 
mission-field. And they are well 
known missionaries now. And the 
eldest brother is one of those whose 
praise is in all the churches. (Alex- 
ander Macleod’s “The Child Jesus.”) 
—James Hastings. 


360. Prayers—Insincere 


Many prayers are not earnest. If 
they were there would be more an- 
swers. Many prayers are uttered 
only under pressure; where God’s 
great love is scouted under normal 
conditions and considered merely be- 
cause some great calamity threatens. 
The notorious murderer, Wanderer, 
who was hanged in Chicago in Sep- 
tember, murmured as he walked to 
the death-chamber, “God have mercy 
on my soul.” Yet the hours preced- 
ing his death were spent in playing 
cards instead of those heart-search- 
ings that would have indicated some 
sense of the need of God’s forgive- 


PRAYER 


ness. His last words were those of 
a senseless, popular song, “Old pal, 
why don’t you answer me—” 

And yet there are multitudes who 
do not die as murderers on the gal- 
lows whose prayers are just as insin- 
cere as those of Carl Wanderer, and 
their last days as senseless. 


Prayers, Registered in 
Heaven 

A charactertistic letter from Henry 
Ward Beecher is found in the ar- 
chives of the Grand Army of the Re- 
public. It was written in reply to a 
request for a copy of a prayer of his 
for publication: 

“Peekskill, July 11, 1878.—Gen. H. 
A. Barnum, Grand Marshal. You 
request me to send you my prayer 
made on Decoration Day evening. 
If you will send me the notes of the 
oriole that whistled from the top of 
my trees last June, or the iridescent 
globes that came in by millions on 
the last waves that rolled in on the 
beach yesterday, or a segment of the 
rainbow of last week, or the per- 
fume of the first violet that blos- 
somed last May, I will also send you 
the prayer that rose to my lips with 
the occasion and left me for ever. I 
hope it went heavenward and was 
registered; in which case the only 
record of it will be found in heaven. 
—Very truly yours, Henry Ward 
Beecher.” 


361. 


362. Praying Aloud 

One day a little girl, about five 
years old, heard a ranting preacher 
praying most lustily, till the roof 
rang with the strength of his sup- 
plication. Turning to her mother, 
and beckoning the maternal ear down 
to a speaking-place, she whispered: 
“Mother, don’t you think that if he 
lived nearer to God he wouldn’t have 
to talk so loud?” 


363. Secret of Strength 
There is an old story of mythology 


141 


about a giant named Antaeus, who 
was born by the earth. In order 
to keep alive this giant was obliged 
to touch the earth as often as once 
in five minutes, and every time he 
thus came in contact with the earth 
he became twice as strong as before. 
The Christian resembles Antaeus. 
In order to become and continue a 
truly-living Christian, the disciple of 
Christ must often approach his 
Father by prayer—Preacher’s Lan- 
tern. 


364. The Fool’s Prayer 


The royal feast was done; the king 
Sought some new sport to banish 
care, 
And to his jester cried: “Sir Fool, 
Kneel now, and make a prayer!” 


The jester doffed his cap and bells, 
And stood the mocking court be- 
fore; 
They could not see the bitter smile 
Behind the painted grin he wore. 


He bowed his head, and bent his 
knee 
Upon the monarch’s silken stool; 
His pleading voice arose: “O Lord, 
Be merciful to me, a fool! 


“No pity, Lord, could change the 
heart 
From red with wrong, to white as 
wool; 
The rod must heal the sin; but, Lord, 
Be merciful to me, a fool! 


“°Tis not by guilt the onward sweep 
Of truth and right, O Lord, we 
stay ; 
’Tis by our follies that so long 
We hold the earth from heaven 
away. 


“These clumsy feet, still in the mire, 
Go crushing blossoms without end ; 
These hard, well meaning hands we 
thrust 
Among 
friend. 


the heart-strings of a 


142 


“The ill-timed truth we might have 
kept— 
Who knows how sharp it pierced 
and stung! 
The word we had not sense to say— 
Who knows how gladly it had 
rung? 


“Our faults no tenderness should 
ask, 
The chastening stripes must cleanse 
them all; 
But for our blunders—oh, in shame 


Before the eyes of heaven we fall. 


“Earth bears no balm for our mis- 
takes ; 
Men crown the knave, and scourge 
the fool 
That did his will; but Thou, O Lord, 
Be merciful to me, a fool!” 


The room was hushed; in silence rose 
The King, and sought his gardens 
cool, 
And walked apart, 
low, 
“Be merciful to me, a fool!” 
—Edward Rowland Sill. 


and murmured 


CHRISTIANS 


365. Believers—Faulty 


A proverb from India says: “A 
faulty diamond is more valuable than 
a perfect pebble.’ So in God’s esti- 
mation believers, in spite of their 
faults, are more valuable than unbe- 
lieving moralists. Though this, is 
true, let perfection be our ideal! 


366. Christian—A Genuine 


Elder Knapp was once showing, in 
a sermon, the difference between a 
mere professor and a genuine Chris- 
tian. By the way of illustration he 


said that if you should turn the for-. 


mer out of the church he would act 
like a hog, that turns round and tries 
to root the pen down; but that the 
other would be like a lamb, that looks 
wistfully towards the fold, and longs 
to be within it again.—Christian Age. 


CHRISTIANS 


367. Christian Furlough 


A professing Christian sold a bale 
of poor hay to a certain colonel, who 
rebuked him, and the church member 
whined, “I am a_ soldier, too.” 
“You! ejaculated the colonel in a 
tone of disgust. “What kind of a 
soldier are your” “I am a soldier 
of the cross,” said the skinflint, with 
a detestable flourish of the hand. 
“That may be,” said the colonel, “but 
you’ve been on a furlough ever since 
I knew you.” 


368. Christian—Narrow 


Jenny Lind once went to hear 
Father Taylor preach in Boston; but 
the preacher, ignorant of her pres- 
ence, paid a glowing tribute te her 
powers of song. As the Swedish 
nightingale leaned forward with de- 
light, drinking in this unexpected 
praise, a tall man who sat on the pul- 
pit-stairs rose and wanted to know 
whether any one who had died at 
Miss Lind’s concerts would go to 
heaven. Father Taylor said, “Sir, a 
Christian will go to heaven wherever 
he dies; but a fool will be a fool, 
even though he be on the pulpit- 
stairs.’—Life of Father Taylor. 


369. Christian—Prostrate 


I have a small mantel clock that 
refuses to run only when it is lying 
on its back. It just can’t operate 
while in a normal position. Some 
people in our town are mighty like 
that clock. The only time they are 
pious and teachable is when they’re 
ill or handicapped in some other way. 
“Before I was afflicted I went as- 
tray, but now have I kept Thy word.” 


370. Christian—Rejoicing 

One of Paul’s practical injunctions 
is: “Rejoice with those that do re- 
joice.” An aged woman of Brook- 
lyn that Dr. Charles Parkhurst tells 
about surely caught the spirit of it. 
She lived in a tiny room on the 
north side of a tenement. One day 


CHRISTIANS 


a visitor said to her: “You never 
see the sunshine in this room, do 
you?” Quick and confident and 
sweet was her reply: “The sun never 
shines in here, but I can see it shin- 
ing upon my neighbor’s windows.” 
Who has not known a few choice 
souls like that? How they adorn 
the gospel they profess. The ability 
to see the things of others, and then 
to delight in them, who does not 
crave such a spirit? 


371. Equality Before Him 


It is related of the Duke of Well- 
ington, that once, when he remained 
to take the sacrament at his parish 
church, a very poor old man went up 
the opposite aisle, and, reaching the 
communion table, knelt down close 
by the side of the Duke. Some one 
came and touched the poor man on 
the shoulder, and whispered to him 
to move farther away, or to rise and 
wait until the Duke had received the 
bread and wine. But the eagle eye 
and the quick ear of the great com- 
mander caught the meaning of that 
touch and that whisper. He clasped 
the old man’s hand and held him to 
prevent his rising; and in a rever- 
ential undertone, but most distinctly, 
said, “Do not move: all are equal 
here.”—The Biblical Museum. 


372. Sentiment—Christian 


When the Vice-President and Mrs. 
Hobart signified to the Belgian Min- 
ister at Washington their desire to 
entertain Prince Albert, the Crown 
Prince of Belgium, they were in- 
formed that Sunday evening would 
be an agreeable date for their royal 
guest to attend the proposed dinner 
party proffered. To this proposal 
Mrs. Hobart returned a prompt re- 
fusal, giving even royalty to under- 
stand that on the Lord’s day Ameri- 
cans were engaged in something 
higher than giving dinners, a custom 
which she did not propose to infringe 
upon for any cause. 

When General Grant was in Paris 


143 


he was invited by the government to 
attend the races on Sunday. He 
courteously, but positively, declined 
the invitation, telling his French host 
that it was not the custom of his 
country to have such festivities on a 
day kept holy. 

One of the many blessings for 
which the American people have 
cause to be thankful is that their 
rulers have seldom failed to recog- 
nize the religious sentiment of the 
nation, and to give the weight of 
their high example to the observance 
of our Christian ordinances.—Lu- 
theran World. 


373. Christian Unity 


When Anthony of Bourbon, dur- 
ing the French king’s minority, held 
the regency of France he informed 
the Danish ambassador that he hoped 
in a short time to procure a free 
passage for the gospel throughout 
France. The ambassador, a zeal- 
ous Lutheran, expressed his pleasure 
but hoped that Luther’s, not Calvin’s, 
doctrines would be taught. “Luther 
and Calvin,” replied the regent, 
“agree in forty points and differ but 
in one. Let those therefore that fol- 
low the tenets of those two unite 
their strength against the common 
enemy and at better leisure and in 
a more convenient season compound 
their own differences.” 

This was finely said, and denom- 
ationalists still need to ponder the 
advice. How often, when some door 
of opportunity opens, do we think of 
the fortunes of our little Israel rather 
than the wider interests of the king- 
dom of God. 


374. Christian—Why Be a 


I have heard of a man who said 
he was going to decide the question 
of becoming a Christian in a reason- 
able way, and that he would write 
down on one piece of paper all the 
reasons why he ought to be a Chris- 
tian, and on another all the reasons 
why he ought not to be a Christian, 


144 


and then would weigh the matter 
in a rational way and decide like a 
reasonable man. And so be began. 
He wrote first the reasons why he 
ought to be a Christian, and his pen 
just flew down the paper and up on 
the other side until it was full of rea- 
sons; and then he began with the 
reasons why he ought not to be a 
Christian. He put down the figure 
one, and there his pen stopped. He 
could not think of one single reason 
why he ought not to be a Christian. 
And you can’t either. There are no 
such reasons. 


375° Christianity—Concealed 


Concealed Christianity does not 
honor the Head of our church. But 
our life can be hidden without being 
concealed. “Are you a Christian?” 
asked Ralph Norton recently of a 
baggagemaster on a train. ‘Yes, 
sir,” was the reply; “I’m a trunk 
Baptist.” “What is that?” asked Nor- 
ton in surprise. “My wife and I are 
church-members. We moved to 
Savannah, and our letters are in our 
trunk,” said the trainman with entire 
frankness. A trunk is a dangerous 
place for our Christianity. It can get 
moth-eaten there. But when our life 
is really hidden in the right way, our 
Christianity will not be concealed in 
a trunk—as we remember that “ye 
died, and your life is hid with Christ 
ay God.) Col) 3::3- The rightly hid 
life will be sure to express itself in 
service and activity as a witnessing 
member of the church, the body of 
Christ. S. Times. 


376. Christianity Necessary 


A young lawyer who was an infi- 
del, going West to settle for life, 
made his boast that he would locate 
in some place where there were no 
churches, Sunday Schools, nor Bi- 
bles. He found a place which sub- 
stantially met his conditions. Before 
the year was out he wrote to a for- 
mer classmate, a young minister, beg- 
ging him to come and bring plenty 


CHRISTIANS 


of Bibles, and 
Sunday School. 


preach, and start a 
“For,” said he, “I 


shave become convinced that a place 


without Christians and Sabbaths and 
churches and Bibles is too much like 
hell for any living man to stay in.” 


277. Christianity—Practical 


A barber who practices his art in 
a large Yorkshire village, had a rival. 
Our hero is an earnest Christian and 
local preacher. He noticed, in a re- 
cent week, a great increase of cus- 
tomers, and on making inquiry learnt 
that the practitioner at the other end 
of the village was ill. At the end of 
the week the barber made a calcula- 
tion, and all he had taken above his 
average he took to his brother of the 
razor, with the warm expression 0 
his Christian sympathy. Is Chris- 
tianity played out? Verily, no! 


378. Christians—A bsorbing 


The other day I was down at 4 
beautiful little place called Rhosilly 
down on the Gower peninsula, not 
far from my own present home, and 
I was looking about, as I always do 
in an old church, to see what inter- 
esting things | could find. In the 
belfry vestry I found a ship’s bell 
hanging, and I looked at it; I tapped 
it, and it was dead and dull, and I 
looked, and the whole of the bottom 
of the bell was plugged with a disc 
of wood right up; and then in the 
side of the bell they had cut a door, 
and there was a hinge and a padlock. 
They were using that old ship’s bell 
for a strong box. Very useful, but 
it was not what the bell was made 
for. There are many Christians here 
made by the Lord to be bells to 
sound out the notes of the Gospel 
of Jesus Christ, to tell of the love 
and the power of him, to witness of 
him, and what are they? They are 
just strong boxes, and you cannot get 
any sound out of them. They take 
all in, and they give nothing out, 
and they pride themselves on being 
saints or saved. 


CHRISTIANS 


379. Christians—Aggressive 


When General Grant was in front 
of Richmond, and his army had been 
repulsed in the Wilderness, he called 
together his co-commanders and held 
a council, and asked them what they 
thought he had better do. There 
were General Sherman and General 
Howard, now leading generals, and 
all thought he had better retreat. 
He heard them through, and then 
broke up the council of war and sent 
them back to their headquarters; but 
before morning an orderly came 
round with a despatch from the 
General directing an advance in solid 
column on the enemy at daylight. 
That was what took Richmond and 
broke down the rebellion in our 
country. Christians, let us advance 
in solid column against the enemy; 
let us lift high the standard, and in 
the name of our God let us lift up 
our voice, and let us work together, 
shoulder to shoulder, and keep our 
eye single to the honor and glory of 
Christ—Moody. 


380. Christian’s Burden 


On the lower deck of one of our 
river packets a little pile of pig-iron 
was carried on the trip up the river, 
and when the cargo was unloaded, 
the pig-iron was not removed, but 
was carried again on the trip down 
the river. When the reason was 
asked, the answer was given, “She 
travels steadier when she carries a 
weight.” And that is true of men 
and women. The world has little 
use for the young man or woman 
who has no furrow of thought, and 
no wrinkle of responsibility. And 
we are not kind to our own chil- 
dren when we seek continually to 
shield them from the hard things 
in life. We may wish to spare them 
some of our own hard experiences, 
but if they are to be strong and self- 
reliant they must reach it by putting 
themselves under the burden, and 
feeling the pressure of some of the 


145 


dificult things in life. You want 
your boy to be strong and manly; 
you must push him off the plank, that 
he may learn of himself to swim. 
“Every man shall bear his own bur- 
den.”—Pittsburgh Christian Advo- 
cate. 


381. Christians—Conforming 


D. L. Moody, speaking in refer- 
ence to those people who claim to be 
on both sides of the question of sal- 
vation, said: “You detest a character 
of that kind. During our war there 
were, in the border States, some of 
those people. They kept two flags. 
When the Southern army came along 
they would run out the Confederate 
flag; then when the Northern army 
came along and they thought they 
were going to be in town some time, 
they would pull in the Southern flag 
and run out the Union flag, the Star 
Spangled Banner. Do you know 
that those people suffered more than 
any other people? The Southern 
army would strip them of everything 
they had, and if they hid anything 
from the Southern army and accu- 
mulated anything, when the Union 
army came along, it would strip them 
of everything. Both armies detested 
them. We like to have men one 
thing or the other. You cannot serve 
God and mammon. You cannot have 
two masters in this matter. ‘He that 
is not for me is against me.’” 


382. Christians—Crazy 


The keeper of an insane asylum 
on being asked, “Are you not afraid 
that these insane people will unite 
some time and hurt you and the 
other attendants?” replied, “No. 
Crazy people never unite on any- 
thing.” 


383. Christians—Crazy 

Two friends, one an army officer, 
met after an interval of ten years. 
They were much attached to each 
other, and shook hands cordially. 
After a little chat, the civilian, look- 


146 


ing at the other man with a curious 
air, observed: “By the way, Gen- 


eral, they tell me you have gone 


mad over religion. Is there really 
anything in the report?” “Well,” 
responded the general, “I’m not 
aware of being crazy; so far as l 
know I am in the enjoyment of my 
senses. But you know there is one 
comfort; if I am out of my head, 
I’ve got Jesus Christ for my keeper 
and heaven for my lunatic asylum, 
so I think I shan’t do badly after 
all.” 


384. Christians—Earthly 


The wealthy owner of a large 
business concern in Sweden had been 
a poor boy in a country district tend- 
ing cattle. One day he wanted to be 
away, and asked his sister to tend 
the cattle for the day, promising to 
let her hold for the day a small 
coin, current there, worth less than 
two annas, to be returned at night. 
She consented. The very sight of 
money was a great rarity to her. 
So she spent a long, hard day tend- 
ing his cattle and holding the bright 
little coin, and returned it again at 
night, quite content with the day’s 
pay. 

Long years afterwards the brother 
was telling the story. He had grown 
very wealthy. He had allowed the 
love of money to crowd out the 
Christ passion to which he was not 
a stranger. He told the story to my 
friend with great glee, laughing at 
his sister’s childish simplicity. My 
friend said quietly: “That is all you 
get; you hold your wealth to the end 
of the day of your life, then you 
give it up and have as little as before, 
and the whole of your life is gone!” 
And the man’s startled face showed 
that he quite understood. 


385. Christians—Friendly 

A clergyman had preached about 
recognition of our friends in heaven. 
One of his hearers remarked: “I 
wish the pastor would soon preach 


CHRISTIANS 


on recognizing our friends on earth. 
I’ve attended this church six years, 
but do not recollect having been 
greeted outside of the church by any 
of its members.” 

Is it not true that there is far too 
little real fellowship in our churches? 
People sit in the same pew on Sun- 
days, they commune at the Holy 


Table, they hope to spend eternity in 


Heaven, but in spite of these facts 
there seems to be a barrier between 
them here so that one is inclined to 
doubt whether their hope will be 
realized. 


386. Christians—Growing 


There is a blessing in striving 
after a Christian character, even 
supposing we never attain to our 
ideal. The baby sat on his play-rug 
and cooed and gurgled with the joy 
of living. The admiring visitor 
laughed at his antics as he reached 
vainly for a bright tassel on a cur- 
tain cord just out of reach of his 
destructive fingers. 

“Of all the toys he has that tassel 
seems the most fascinating, probably 
because he can’t get it,” laughed the 
mother. “Wait until he walks, then 
he’ll pull it down,” said the visitor. 
“He reminds me of Browning’s, ‘Ah, 
but a man’s reach should exceed his 
grasp, or what’s heaven for.’ Baby 
is like most of us—he tosses aside 
the attainable and reaches for things 
beyond.” “Yes,” said the mother, 
“and like us, too, he grows by reach- 
ing. If we were content to sit still, 
and amuse ourselves with our 
little, earthly playthings—just think 
what weak undeveloped souls we 
should have. It’s the reaching that 
makes us stronger, larger and 
better.” “I press toward the mark.” 


387. Christians—Honest 


Christ makes a gracious difference 
in the soul that truly knows him; for 
where he is sin cannot be. “Rabbi” 
Duncan once told of a minister who 
visited one of his flock. She was a 


CHRISTIANS 


miller’s wife, and in those days 
millers had a character for roguery, 
especially in the way of short meas- 
ure After the old Scotch fashion 
he started “catechizing’ her. What 
did she remember of the sermon last 
Lord’s day? She could remember 
nothing, not even the text. Wherein, 
then, was she the better for going 
to church? “Well,” she replied, 
“when I came home I burned the 
bushel measure.”—David Smith. 


388. Christians—Indifferent 


Not long since in an American 
city a mother suddenly died with no 
one in the house but two small chil- 
dren who were found playing about 
the dead body about as unconcerned 
as if nothing had happened. But 
something more tragic and pitiful 
than this is seen by the Saviour 
when he sees professing Christians 
coming into constant daily contact 
with those who are “worse than 
dead” through sin, and neglecting to 
seek to turn their hearts to Him— 
nay even content— 


“To dance, to call, to break 
No canon of the social code, 
The little laws that lackeys make, 
The feeble decalogue of mode: 
How many a soul for these things 


lives 
With pious passion, grave intent, 
While heaven, careless handed, 
gives 
The things that are more excel- 
lent.” 


389. Christians—Lukewarm 


D. L. Moody met a stranger on the 
piazza of the hotel at Northfield, and 
said to him in his abrupt and eager 
way, “My friend, are you a Chris- 
tian?” 

The man, stiffening a little, re- 
plied: “What do you think?” 

“Not red hot!” exclaimed Mr. 
Moody, as he hastened on. 

You can tell a red hot Christian 
when you see him, or when you 
hear him either. And yet he does 


147 


not have to be boisterous to reveal 
it. 

The trouble with so many of us 
is that we are not “red hot.” The 
whole church is not “red hot.” The 
Christian press is not “red hot.” If 
we were “red hot,” sin would be 
burned out in our lives, and our 
neighbors would feel the warmth. 

How may we become “red hot’? 
There is responsibility resting upon 
us in the matter, for the Greek of 
our text might be rendered, “Stir 
into flame the gift of God which is 
in thee.” The gift is the Holy 
Spirit Himself. Is it possible we can 
have more of the fire of God if we 
desire it? D. L. Moody’s own ex- 
perience is an cffirmative answer to 
this. Let us therefore ask that we 
may receive, and seek that we may 
find, and knock that it may be opened 
unto us.—Gen. O. O. Howard. 


390. Christians—Posing 


In London, England, there stands 
an equestrian statue of St. George. 


The horse is stationary with the 
forefoot lifted midway from the 
ground. He is just about to go 


somewhere, but he hasn’t started yet. 

You go back there two years from 
now and you will find him in the 
very same place and just about to 
start. The birds have built their 
nests in his ears. 

There is more than one congrega- 
tion where there are St. George’s 
statues—people who are just about 
to do right, but who never accom- 
plish anything worth while. They 
are just about to do something for 
missions, for temperance, or evan- 
gelism, but if you go back to them 
in two years, six years, or ten years, 
you will find them where you left 
them and still just about to start. 

It grates on the nerves of a sen- 
sitive person to look on this eques- 
trian statue in London. It makes 
one wish for a dynamite bomb to 
help it move on. 

A generous use of gospel dynamite 


148 


bombs is one remedy to aid eques- 


trian statues in a congregation to 


move forward. 


391. Christians—Silent 


A Christian woman of Foochow, 
China, when in England visited a 
cathedral. Noticing the date upon 
the oldest part of the building, she 
exclaimed, “What? do you mean to 
say you were Christians all those 
years and you never told usr” Is 
it any wonder she asked the ques- 
tion? 


392. Christians—Struggling 


I learned to swim in boyhood, but 
it was only this summer that I 
achieved complete mastery of myself 
in the water. For thirty years I had 
assumed that I must constantly put 
forth effort to keep from sinking. 

One day an expert swimmer 
watched me for a few minutes then 
cried: “Stop fighting the water and 
trust it to hold you up. Use your 
strength to get somewhere.” 

Under his direction a few mo- 
ments sufficed to convince me he was 
right. I lay flat in the water with- 
out moving hands or feet and to my 
delight it held me up. Then I 
struck out, using my strength to 
forge ahead. What a revelation. 
Why did not some one tell me that 
years ago? 

So many constantly struggle to be 
Christians when if they would only 
trust Christ they would be kept. 
How suggestive is that advice when 
applied to the Christian: “Stop 
struggling and trust God to keep you. 
Use your strength to get some- 
where.” 


393. Christians—Sunshine 


I noticed a tree planted at the 
sunny end of a house, and there the 
blossoms were large and beautiful. 
It was a feast to the eyes, but some 
of the branches were trained round 
the corner, where they got so much 
less of the sun, and the difference 


CHRISTIANS 


was wonderful. The blossoms here 
were starved and sad, and there was 
the least promise of fruit; same root, 
same stem, but while one part of 
the tree was 1n the full glorious light, 
the other branches were in the shade. 
Ah, brethren, it is thus in character. 
—W. L. Watkinson. 


394. Christians—Tempering 


A Christian blacksmith who had 
had a good deal of affliction was 
asked by an unbeliever to account 
for it. He said: 

“You know that I am a blacksmith. 
I often take a piece of iron and put 
it in the fire and bring it to a white 
heat. Then I put it on the anvil and 
strike it once or twice to see if it 
will take temper. If I think it will 
I plunge it into water, then heat it 
again, then plunge it into water 
again. This I repeat several times. 
Then I hammer it, bend it, rasp, file 
it, and then make some useful article 
out of it. 

“Now I believe my Heavenly 
Father wants to use me, so he is 
putting me through the fire and 
water of affliction; he let me experi- 
ence sorrow of suffering. I have had 
many hard blows, have been bent, 
rasped, filed. But I am glad of it 
all, if only I can be of service to 
him.”—Ram’s Horn. 


395. Christians—Unprogressive 


One of our evangelists in the 
earlier days was accustomed to tell 
a story of an old farmer who, in the 
prayer meetings of his church, was 
wont, in describing his Christian ex- 
perience, to use the phrase, “Well, 
I’m not making much progress, but 
I am established.” One springtime 
when the farmer was getting out 
some logs his wagon sank in the 
mud in a soft place in the road and 
he could not get out. As he sat on 
top of the logs reviewing the situa- 
tion, a neighbor who had never ac- 
cepted the principle of the old man’s 
religious experience came along and 


CHRISTIANS 


greeted him: “Well, Brother Jones, 
I see you are not making much prog- 
ress, but you’re established.” To be 
stuck on the road is not a very satis- 
factory type of establishment, but 
it is not uncommon.—Robert E. 
Speer. 


396. Christians—Worthless 


One thing the fruit-grower learns 
very early, and that is to keep the 
sprouts which are so apt to grow out 
at the top of the trunk of his trees 
cut off. He knows they take from 
the life of the tree and never bear 
any fruit. He has given these use- 
less sprouts a name we do not care 
to hear or think about—suckers— 
just because they sap the very life- 
blood and give nothing back. 

But take these same sprouts and 
graft them upon the limbs of an- 
other tree and in a little while you 
will find them loaded with the choic- 
est fruit. They simply were not in 
the right place. Wonderful, is it not, 
that simply to take those barren 
sprigs of wood and graft them some- 
where else will make them bear such 
beautiful, rosy-cheeked apples! 

There is a parable here. Where 
are those you love? Ah, well you 
know some who are where they 
never bring any fruit for the 
Master. You are sad when you 
think of it. So much strength 
wasted! And all because your dear 
ones are not grafted in the right 
place. Give them something to do. 
It may be they must be severed from 
many things they have counted dear. 
They may shrink from the service 
you give them to do and think they 
never can do it. Tell them it is “no 
more I that live, but Christ that 
liveth in me,” and in his strength 
they can do anything. So drawing 
life and strength from him it will 
not be long before you will see the 
richest fruit growing from these 
branches which seemed once so dead 
and useless. So God will be honored 
and the world blessed. 


149 


397. Christians—Young 


Among the skaters was a boy so 
small and so evidently a beginner 
that his frequent mishaps awakened 
the pity of a tenderhearted, if not 
wise spectator. “Why, sonny, you 
are getting all bumped up,” she said. 
“IT wouldn’t stay on the ice and keep 
falling down so. I’d just come oft 
and watch the others.” 

The tears of the last downfall 
were still rolling over the rosy 
cheeks but the child looked from 
his adviser to the shining steel on 
his feet and answered: “I didn’t get 
some new skates to give up with; 
I got ’em to learn how with.” 


398. Conduct—Private 


The Duke of Wellington, observ- 
ing a British officer standing in a 
slack manner, asked: “Why do you 
stand in such an unbecoming atti- 
tuder”» Said he: “lame off ‘duty, 
sir.” But the Iron Duke replied: “A 
British officer is never off duty, so 
resume your military standing.” 


399. God’s Instruments 


John Albert, the famous violin 
maker of Philadelphia, who has been 
called!) “The: Stradivarius * of 
America,” died the other day at the 
age of ninety years. His great suc- 
cess in making violins, that won him 
fame throughout the world, was as 
much due to the care with which he 
selected the woods from which they 
were made as to his skill as a work- 
man. So much depended on the 
proper woods that Albert sought 
them sometimes at the risk of his 
life. Once he lay for weeks be- 
tween life and death, the victim of 
an accident while he was on the hunt 
for a certain wood in an almost im- 
passable forest. Ole Bull, the great 
violinist, pronounced him one of the 
great violin makers of the world be- 
cause he possessed the greatest 
knowledge of the acoustic properties 
of woods of any man living at that 


150 


time. Surely if a violin maker must 
pay such great heed to the character 
of the wood out of which he con- 
structs a violin, in order that he may 
make it a perfect interpreter of musi- 
cal thought to human ears, we 
should not wonder at the care of 
God in seeking to so purify and 
cleanse our hearts that they shall be 
resonant, and responsive to the 
slightest touch of the Holy Spirit, 
and thus be able to interpret the 
melodies of heaven.—Louis Albert 
Banks. 


400. Enemies—Capturing 


In the year 1818, Tamatoe, king 
of Huahine, one of the South Sea 
Islands, became a Christian. He dis- 
covered a plot among his fellow 
natives to seize him and other con- 
verts to burn them to death. He 
organized a band to attack the 
plotters, captured them unawares 
and then set a feast before them. 
This unexpected kindness surprised 
and dumfounded the savages, who 
burned their idols and became Chris- 
tians. Heathen Christians here and 
now might borrow a leaf from that 
book. 


401. Formality 


There is a variety of apple called 
“Apple-John,” which is considered to 
be in perfection when it is shrivelled 
and withered. There are also those 
who believe in an apple-John religion, 
which to them is perfect only when 
it is thoroughly dried up of all 
spiritual power and utterly destitute 
of the sap of life and growth. The 
trees of the Lord are full of sap. 
—James Smith. 


402. Gospel According to You 


There’s a sweet old story translated 
for man 
But writ in the long, long ago— 
The Gospel, according to Mark, 
Luke and John— 
Of Christ and his mission below. 


CHRISTIANS 


Men read and admire the Gospel of 
Christ, 
With its love so unfailing and 
true; 
But what do they say, and what do 
they think; 
Of the Gospel “according to you”? 


’Tis a wonderful story, that Gospel 
of love, 
As it shines in the Christ life 
divine, 
And, O, that its truth might be told 
again 
In the story of your life and mine. 


Unselfishness mirrors in every scene, 
Love blossoms on every sod, 
And back from its vision the heart 
comes to tell 
The wonderful goodness of God. 


You are writing each day a letter to 
men, 
Take care that the writing is true, 
’Tis the only Gospel that some men 
will read— 
That “Gospel according to you.” 


403. Indolence 


The mischief of indolence is not 
that it neglects the use of powers 
and the improvement of the oppor- 
tunities of life, but that it breeds 
morbid conditions in every part of 
the soul. An indolent man is like 
an unoccupied dwelling. Scoundrels 
sometimes burrow in it. Thieves 
and evil. characters make it their 
haunt; or, if they do not, it is full 
of vermin. A house that is used 
does not breed moths half as fast 
as a house that, having the begin- 
nings of them, stands empty. Woe 
be to them who take an old house, 
and carry their goods into it! A 
lazy man is an old house full of 
moths in every part—H. W. 
Beecher. 


404. Lifters and Leaners 


The following lines from some 
unknown poet, accurately describe 


CHRISTIANS 


the situation in many a church and 

community. 

“The two kinds of people on earth, 
Il ween, 

Are the people who lift and the 
people who lean, 

Wherever you go you will find the 
world’s masses 

Are always divided in just these 
two classes. 

And oddly enough, you will find, 
too, I ween, 

There is only one lifter to twenty 
who lean. 

In which class are you? 
easing the load 

Of overtaxed lifters who toil down 
the road? 

Or are you a leaner, who lets others 
bear 

Your portion of labor and worry 
and care?” 


Are you 


405. Religion—Formal 

Said a Michigan business man to 
his pastor at the close of a Men and 
Religion Forward Movement cam- 
paign, “You know that in crossing 
the ocean they always label the 
baggage that goes into the hold, 
‘Not wanted on the voyage. That’s 
been the way with my religion for 
a good many years, pastor, but in 
the future I’m going to use it, and 
I want you to count on me.” 


406. Religion—True 


Men have different ideas of re- 
ligion. With some it is mainly feel- 
ing, with others it is largely form; 
with some it is mostly faith, with 
others it is generally talk! 

A converted cowboy gives this as 
his idea of what religion is: “Lots 
of folks that would really like to 
do right think that servin’ the 
Lord means. shoutin’ themselves 
hoarse praisin’ his name. Now, [ll 
tell you how I look at that. I’m 
working for Jim here. Now, if I'd 
sit around the house here tellin’ 
what a good fellow Jim is, and 
singin’ songs to him an’ gettin’ up 


151 


in the night to serenade him, I’d be 
doin’ just like what lots of Chris- 
tians do, but I wouldn’t suit Jim, 
and I’d get fired mighty quick. But 
when I buckle on my straps and 
hustle among ‘the hills and see that 
Jim’s herd is all right an’ not suf- 
ferin’ for water and feed, or bein’ 
off the range and branded by cow- 
thieves, then I’m serving Jim as 
he wants to be served.” 

This was the converted cowboy’s 
idea. Does it not sound a little 
like the voice of Him who, when 
his disciple said, “Lord, thou 
knowest all things, thou knowest 
that I love thee,” only answered, 
“Tend my sheep; Tend my lambs’? 
—Evangelical Messenger. 


407. Religious “Butter” 


The “butter” is a biped with strong 
mental propensities. You meet the 
“butter” everywhere. He is always 
ready to “butt” every proposition. 
Butting is a disease and he has 
caught a bad case. Butting as a 
disease is worse than smallpox. 
Those who are unfortunate enough 
to contract smallpox either get well 
or die, but not so with the butter; 
he always lives and that to butt. In 
his list of prepositions, adverbs or 
conjunctions “but” is always placed 
first. You say to him, “Mr. A. is 
a fine fellow.” “Yes,” will come the 
labored reply, “but I don’t like the 
clothes he wears ;” or “he has too big 
a nose.” Should you in passing note 
the condition of the weather as, 
“Tt is a fine day,” “Yes,” the butter 
will reply, “but it’s too warm,” or 
“It’s too hot.” So you find those 
who are putting the “but” into every- 
thing they say. The butter is found 
in labor organizations, in societies, 
in lodges and in church. The worst 
form of him is found in church. 
The religious “butter” is the most 
dangerous bacillus. There is no 
remedy known to religious thera- 
peutics to counteract his influence. 
If the pastor attempts to treat him 


152 


he is apt to get a “butt” that will 
knock him out of the pulpit. li 
the church officials attempt to deal 
with him a split is apt to be caused 
in the fold and the “come-outers” 
turned into a faction of “butter.” 
About the only thing to do with the 
chronic “butter” is to let him “butt.” 


408. Resolutions—Edwards’ 


Jonathan Edwards’ resolutions 
were these: 

Resolved, to live with all might 
while I co live; 

Resolved, never to lose one 


moment of time, but improve it in 
the most profitable way I possibly 
can ; 

Resolved, never to do anything 
which I should despise, or think 
meanly of in another ; 

Resolved, never to do anything 
out of revenge; 

Resolved, never to do anything 
which I should be afraid to do if 
it were the last hour of my life. 


409. Righteousness—A ppetite for 


Charles M. Alexander, the Gospel 
singer, tells the story of an old 
colored man in Chicago, who always 
came into one of the missions with 
a bright and shining face, no matter 
what happened. One day he came 
with his thumb tied up. They asked 
him what was the matter, and he re- 
plied, “To-day I was fixing a box 
and I smashed my thumb, but praise 
the Lord, I have my thumb yet.” 
A few nights after he came in with 
his face as bright as ever. .Some- 
one inquired, “Well, uncle, what 
have you to praise the Lord for to- 
night?” “Oh,” said he, “I was com- 
ing down the street to-night with a 
big piece of beefsteak. 1 had spent 
all my money on that beefsteak, and 
I laid it down on the sidewalk to 
tie my shoe, and while I was tying 
my shoe, a big dog came along and 
took that beefsteak and carried it off. 
Praise the Lord!” A man said, 
“Took here, uncle, what are you 


CHRISTIANS 


praising the Lord for about that?” 
The colored man answered, “I’m 
praising the Lord because I’ve got 


“my appetite left.” There are a good 


many men who would give a good 
part of their fortune for an appetite, 
and the greatest thing of all to be 
thankful for is a spiritual appetite, 
for has not Jesus promised that, 
“Blessed are they who do hunger 
and thirst after righteousness, for 
they shall be filled”? 


410. Sainthood—Attaining 


“Flow did you learn to skate?” a 
little boy was asked. 

“Oh,” was the innocent but signifi- 
cant answer, “by getting up every 
time I fell down.” 


411. Saints—Communion of 


A gentleman on his death-bed was 
told by his friends of the glories of 
heaven, its golden streets, its river 
of life, its crowns and harps, and all 
the delights and joys of that wonder- 
ful life. “That is all very well,” he 
said, “and doubtless is perfectly 
true; but I would rather remain in 
a world where I am better ac- 
quainted.” What an argument for 
keeping intimate communion with 
Christ and His saints, with the 
thoughts and principles of heaven! 
—Phelps. 


412. Saints—How Made 


When Gregory the Great was 
Bishop of Rome, a beggar once died 
of hunger in the streets of the Eter- 
nal City. Am I my brother’s keeper ? 
he asked himself. He felt he could 
not avoid the true answer. One of 
the sheep committed to his care had 
been starved to death; his charity 
was shocked; his vigilance had 
failed; his sense of responsibility 


was outraged; and he imposed a 


severe penance on himself, and for 
many days actually lay under his 
own sentence of excommunication, 
performing no priestly act. This is 
the man who won the title of Great; 


CHRISTIANS 


this is the man who attained to the 
brilliant company of the Saints— 
S. E. Cottam. 


413. Saints—Provision for 


During the siege of Sebastopol, a 
Russian shell buried itself in the side 
of a hill without the city, and opened 
a spring. A little fountain bubbled 
forth where the cannon shot had 
fallen and during the remainder of 
the siege afforded to the thirsty 
troops who were stationed in that 
Vicinity, an abundant supply of pure, 
cold water. Thus the missile of 
death from an enemy, under the 
direction of an overruling Provi- 
dence, proved an almoner of mercy 
to the parched and weary soldiers 
of the allies. 


414. Soul—Restoration of 


I remember meeting a man who, 
though a Christian, had fallen into 
sin. The church of which he had 
been a member had exercised dis- 
cipline in his case; and for twelve 
years he had been in this condition. 
In answer to my inquiry he replied, 
“I was a Christian once, but I fell.” 
“Well, but,” I rejoined, “have you 
ever been restored?” “No,” he re- 
plied; “I have been utterly miserable 
about it, and would give anything 
to be what I once was.” “Would you 
like to be restored at this moment?” 
I asked; “for as surely as God lives 
you may be.” He looked at me in 
amazement. To help his mind I 
said, “Suppose that you had a 
daughter who had sinned against 
you, and given you great sorrow; 
last night, however, she came and 
threw her arms about her mother’s 
neck, saying, ‘O mother, I am so 
ashamed of myself for having given 
you and dear father such anxiety 
and sorrow; do forgive me.’ 
can your daughter restore herself, 
or must her rectoration be your 
act?” “Mine,” he replied. “Now, 
how soon would you restore her— 
in twelve years?” “Surely no,” he 


I ask, 


153 


in twelve months?” 
“Well, in three?” 
“Then how soon 
would you restore her?” I asked. 
“Why, at once,” he rejoined. 
“What!” I said, “are you prepared 
at once to restore your child, and 
do you think that our Father in 
heaven is not prepared upon con- 
fession to Him to restore im- 
mediately?” Opening my Bible, he 
read the first clause of the third 
verse of the Twenty-third Psalm; 
“He restoreth amy soul.” “Notice,” 
I remarked, “that the word re- 
storeth is in the present tense.” 

I can never forget the joy with 
which, after prayer, my friend was 
filled. “Thank God,” he replied, “for 
this night. I see it clearly now. It 
is God that restores.’ — Henry 
Varley. 


added. “Well, 
“No,” he replied. 
“No,” he said. 


415. Spiritual Asphyxiation 

The other day in Brooklyn, a coal 
merchant, while looking over his 
stock, fell from the platform into a 
bin of fine coal. Realizing the 
nature of such coal, which acts very 
much like quicksand, he shouted for 
help. Before those who heard him 
could come to his rescue he had dis- 
appeared from sight. A quickwitted 
man went down and opened the 
chute below, allowing the coal to 
pour out of the huge bin. It was 
not until the greater part of the 
coal had been drawn off that the 
unfortunate man, now unconscious, 
was brought to the door. He 
barely escaped with his life. How 
many business men who affect to 
stand master of their business, are 
like this man, almost spiritually 
asphyxiated by being submerged in 
the cares of this world! 


416. Unfaithfulness of  God’s 
Stewards 

What shocked men more than the 
stories that came up from the seat 
of war, of unworthy nurses and 
surgeons in that army, when the 


154 


North sent down cordials and wine 
and delicacies for the sick and 
wounded in the hospitals, and they 
never got to the soldiers, but were 
eaten and drunk by their guardians? 
With what indignation men heard 
such stories and revolted at them! 
But do not you take the wine and 
the bread that are given to you as 
God’s stewards? Do not you ap- 
propriate them all to yourself? You 
live to yourselves; you study for 
yourselves, you think for yourselves ; 
your pleasures are for yourselves, 
though you have the power to make 
others rich—H. W. Beecher. 


CHURCH 


417. Be a Booster 


If you think your church the best, 
Tell ’em so! 

If you’d have it lead the rest, 
Help it grow! 

When there’s anything to do, 

Let them always count on you, 

You'll feel good when it is through 
Don’t you know? 


If you’re used to giving knocks, 
Change your style; 

Throw bouquets instead of rocks 
For awhile. 

Let the other fellow roast, 

Shun him as you would a ghost; 

Meet his banter with a boast 
And a smile. 


When a stranger from afar 
Comes along, 

Tell him who and what you are— 
Make it strong. 

Never flatter, never bluff, 

Tell the truth, for that’s enough. 

Be a booster, that’s the stuff, 
Don’t just belong. 


418. Church—A Cold 


“One day, when I was serving my 
apprenticeship in a factory on the 
banks of the Merrimac River,” says 
the Hon. N. P. Banks, late Governor 
of Massachusetts, “a party of the 


CHURCH 


hands saw a man a quarter of a 
mile down the river struggling 
amongst the broken cakes of ice. 


-We could none of us for the moment 


determine his political complexion 
or bodily colour, but he proved, in 
the end, to be a negro in the water. 
Of course the first care was to 
rescue him; but twice the victim 
slipped from the plank that was 
thrown him. The third time it was 
evident to our inner hearts that it 
was the negro’s last chance, and so 
he evidently thought; ‘For the love 
of God, gentlemen, give me hold of 
the wooden end of the plank this 
time.’ We had been holding him the 
icy end.” How often do Christians 
make the same mistake! We turn 
the icy end of the plank to our fel- 
lows, and then wonder why they do 
not hold on, and why our efforts do 
not save them.—Preacher’s Lantern. 


419. Church a Lighthouse 


Do you ask, “Why not do away 
with the Church, if its members 
make so many mistakes?” Would 
you take away the lighthouse be- 
cause careless mariners, through 
wrong observations, run their ships 
high and dry upon the _ shore? 
Would you put out the lamp in your 
house because moths and millers 
burn their wings in it? What would 
the children do?—Beecher. 


420. Church—A Prayerless 

A worthy minister of the gospel, 
in North America, was pastor of a 
flourishing church. He was a pop- 
ular preacher, but gradually became 
less to his hearers, and his congrega- 
tion very much decreased. This was 
solely attributed to the minister; and 
matters continuing to get worse, 
some of his hearers resolved to 
speak to him on the subject. They 
did so; and when the good man had 
heard their complaints, he replied, 
“T am quite sensible of all you say, 
for I feel it to be true; and the 
reason of it is, that I have lost my 


CHURCH 


prayer-book.” They were astonished 
at hearing this, but he proceeded; 
“Once my preaching was acceptable, 
many were edified by it, and num- 
bers were added to the church, 
which was then in a _ prosperous 
state. But we were then a praying 
people. .’ They took the hint. 
Social prayer was again renewed 
and punctually attended. Exertions 
were made to induce those who were 
without to attend the preaching of 
the Word. And the result was, that 
the minister became as popular as 
ever, and in a short time the church 
was again as flourishing as ever. 
—Clerical Library. 


421. Church—A Slumbering 


A father took his little child out 
into the field one Sabbath, and he 
lay down under a beautiful shady 
tree, it being a hot day. The little 
child ran about gathering wild 
flowers and little blades of grass, and 
coming to his father and _ saying, 
“Pretty! pretty!” At last the father 
fell asleep, and while he was sleep- 
ing the child wandered away. When 
he awoke, his first thought was 
“Where is my child?” He looked all 
around, but he could not see him. 
He shouted at the top of his voice, 
and all he heard was the echo of 
his own voice. Running to a little 
hill, he looked around and shouted 
again, but all he heard was the echo 
of his own voice. No response! 
Then going to a precipice at some 
distance, he looked down, and 
there upon the rocks and briers, he 
saw the mangled form of his loved 
child. He rushed to the spot, and 
took up the lifeless corpse, and 
hugged it to his bosom, and accused 
himself of being the murderer of his 
own child. While he was sleeping 
his child had wandered over the 
precipice. I thought as I heard that, 
what a picture of the Church of 
God! How many fathers and 
mothers, how many Christian men 
and women are sleeping while multi- 


155 


tudes are falling over a precipice 
into the bottomless pit !—Moody. 


422. Church Attendance 


I was speaking to the young In- 
dians about regular attendance at 
church, After I came out, the chief 
said to me, “I’m glad, my lord, that 
you spoke to the young men about 
regularity of attendance at church. 
There have been some white men 
working at a big ditch,’—a canal— 
he said, “and they did not come to 
church on Sundays, and our young 
men think it is manly to follow the 
example of the white men. I 
remonstrated with one of the white 
men, and he gave me an excuse.” I 
said, “What did you say to him?” 
“That is where I got him,” he said. 
“The excuse that he gave was that 
he had not any good clothes to 
come to church in. I told him that 
I had read the Big Book from this 
cover to that cover, and I only found 
one verse about clothes and going to 
church, and the verse was, ‘Rend 
your hearts, and not your gar- 
ments.” I thought that was a 
splendid answer, coming from a pure 
Indian.— Archbishop of Rupert’s 
Land. 


423. Church Becalmed 


Dr. John Goucher related the fol- 
lowing incident at one of the Lake 
George conferences: “One after- 
noon we were sailing on the ocean 
in a beautiful yacht when suddenly 
the wind died away completely. 
After remaining motionless for a 
long time it became evident that we 
would have to spend the night 
there. Just as we had resigned our- 
selves to the inevitable, we sighted a 
steam tug in the distance. When it 
drew near the captain threw us a 
line and in a few moments a thrill 
ran through the becalmed yacht and 
she followed in the wake of the 
powerful little tug.’ Christian, is 
your life or your church becalmed? 
Christ will throw you a line and take 


156 


you to your haven—not only the 
haven of heaven, but the haven of 
opportunity, usefulness and success. 


424. Church Behavior 


A clergyman was annoyed by peo- 
ple talking and giggling in church. 
He paused, looked at the disturbers, 
and said: “I am always afraid to 
expose those who misbehave, for this 
reason: Some years ago, as I was 
preaching, a young man who sat be- 
fore me was laughing, talking and 
making uncouth grimaces. I paused 
and administered a severe rebuke. 
After the service a gentleman said to 
me, ‘Sir, you have made a great mis- 
take. That young man whom you 
reproved is an idiot” Since then I 
have been afraid to reprove those 
who misbehave themselves in church, 
lest I should repeat the mistake and 
reprove another idiot.” During the 
rest of the service there was good 
order. 


425. Church—Disturbed 


A war office is supposed to exist 
for the purpose of keeping the 
country in fighting trim, There are 
some people, however, who imagine 
that it exists only to furnish fat 
jobs for peaceful politicians. Dur- 
ing the early part of the Spanish- 
American war Mr. Roosevelt en- 
countered such a personage. After 
much vain exertion to have certain 
matters carried out, the energetic 
Roosevelt at last secured an order 
giving the authority to make the re- 
quired dent on the obdurate peace- 
loving head officer of the depart- 
ment. “When I came up in triumph 
with the needed order,” writes the 
Ex-President in his Autobiography, 
“the worried office head, who bore 
me no animosity, but who did feel 
that fate had been very unkind, 
threw himself back in his chair and 
exclaimed with a sigh: ‘Oh, dear! 
I had this office running in such 
good shape—and then along came 


CHURCH 


the war and upset everything! His 
feeling was that war was an il- 
legitimate interruption to the work 


of the War Department.” 


How about that “War Depart- 
ment” in your church? Would its 
“established order” be disturbed if 
the Brotherhood took up that lan- 
guishing fight against liquor, or the 
rampant “red light,” or the greedy 
factory owner of the community? 


426. Church—Drawing 


Gen. Robert E. Lee was stopping 
at a certain watering place over Sun- 
day. During the day it was an- 
nounced that a Methodist preacher 
was in the place, and would hold 
a preaching service at 3 o'clock, in 
the dancing-hall. Before the hour 
for service the general, himself a 
devout member of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, passed around 
among the cottages and talked up a 
congregation, saying: “We are going 
to have divine service in the hall at 
three; will you not be kind enough 
to join us?” In most cases the 
simple invitation was accepted, 
and a large number were led to 
hear the gospel who would never 
have thought of such a thing but for 
the general’s call. 

We are accustomed to hold the 
ministry wholly responsible for the 
work of “drawing a congregation.” 
If pews are empty we blame him. 
If people remain unreached we say 
we must “have a change,” that we 
must secure a minister who will 
“draw.” 

How would it do to have a con- 
gregation that will draw? How 
would it do to place some of the 
responsibility upon the people in the 
pews? If we should invite in- 
different people to accompany us 
to church, and do it in a winsome 
way, would not some of the vacant 
spaces be filled? And if we were 
duly gracious in our greetings to 
strangers would we not do much 
to hold these recruits to the church? 


CHURCH 


If the congregation is “running 
down” let the minister bear his share 
of the responsibility. But let the 
pew also assume its responsibility. 
If the pulpit and the pew will both 


“draw” together, the people will 
come. 
427. Church—Forgetting 


“The disciples went, and did even 
as Jesus appointed them.” Matt. 21 :6. 
A little fellow in the slum section 
of a large city was induced to 
attend a mission Sunday School, and 
by and by became a Christian. He 
seemed quite bright and settled in 
his new Christian faith and life, but 
some one, surely in a thoughtless 
mood, tried to test or shake his 
simple faith in God, asking him, 
“Tf God loves you, why doesn’t he 
take better care of you? Why 
doesn’t he tell some one to send you 
warm shoes and some coal and 
better food?” The little fellow 
thought a moment, then with tears 


Bette in his eyes, said, “I guess he 


es tell somebody, but somebody 
forgets.” Without knowing it, the 
boy touched the sore point in the 
church’s history. I wonder if it is 
the sore point with you or me. 


428. Church—fFrozen 


On a hot, sultry night a small 
company were vainly trying to be 
comfortable, sitting on the front 
stoop of a dwelling in a certain city. 
Suddenly one of the party proposed 
that they all go to the prayer meet- 
ing “at the First Church.” “What 
on earth put that notion into your 
head?” queried one of the party. 
“O, it is so hot here, I can’t stand it 
any longer. I thought if we went 
down there we would get cooled 
off, it is the coldest place I know 
of.” This reminds us of what was 
once said by way of a report made 
at an association by a delegate from 
a certain church: “We are all united 
in our church.” said the delegate, and 


157 


sat down. As he took his seat he 
remarked in an undertone to a 
neighbor, “Frozen together.”—Words 
and Weapons. 


429. Church Giving 


Two lads, one of eight and the 
other of six, were playing “store.” 
The father, upon being told what 
game was being played, decided to 
make a purchase and dropped a penny 
under the counter. The six-year- 
old lad then most indignantly de- 
clared their place was a store and 
not a church! 


430. Church-Going 


A capable man of the world wrote 
to a certain professor a letter in 
which he said, “It has been proved 
in the colonies that a rapid social 
retrogression follows upon local in- 
ability to go to church. If the 
settler’s ‘grant’ be so remote that 
church is now an impossibility, he 
gradually ceases to miss it, aban- 
dons the weekly burnishing and out- 
side decorum, and the rest follows.” 

On the other hand Oliver Wen- 
dell Holmes wrote thus of church 
going, “I am a regular church-goer. 
I should go for various reasons, 
though I did not love it; but I am 
happy enough to find great pleasure 
in the midst of devout multitudes, 
whether I can accept their creeds or 
no.” He said there was in the 
corner of his heart a plant called 
reverence, which wanted to be 
watered about once a week. 


Church—Hindrance in 
Joining 


431. 


In a certain town where two 
brothers are engaged in a flourish- 
ing retail coal business a series of 
revival meetings were held, and the 
elder brother of the firm was con- 
verted. 

For weeks after his conversion 
the brother who had lately “got re- 


158 


ligion” endeavored to persuade the 
other to join the church. One day, 
when the elder brother was making 
another effort, he asked: “Why 
can’t you, Richard, join the church 
as I did?” 

“It’s all right for you to be a 
member of the church,” replied 
Richard, “but if I join who’s going 
to weigh the coal?’—Ladies Home 
Journal. 


432. Church—Judging the 


An American gentleman said to 
a friend, “I wish you would come 
down to my garden, and taste my 
apples.” He asked him about a dozen 
times but the friend did not come; 
and at last the fruitgrower said, “I 
suppose you think my apples are 
good for nothing, so you won’t come 
and try them.”—“Well, to tell the 
truth,” said the friend, “I have tasted 
them. As I went along the road, lI 
picked one up that fell over the 
wall, and I never tasted anything so 
sour in all my life; and I do not 
particularly wish to have any more 
of your fruit.’—‘“Oh,” said the 
owner of the garden, “I thought it 
must be so. Those apples around the 
outside are for the special benefit 
of the boys. I went fifty miles to 
select the sourest sorts to plant all 
round the orchard, so the boys might 
give them up as not worth stealing ; 
but, if you will come inside, you 
will find that we grow a very dif- 
ferent quality there, sweet as honey.” 
Those who judge the church by its 
worst members, those most like the 
world, make the same mistake. 
—Spurgeon. 


433. Church Members—Faulty 


A preacher announced a men’s 
meeting in his church for the con- 
sideration of objections to Chris- 
tianity, proposing to give the men a 
chance to air their objections. Over 
1200 were present. 

The first objector said: “Church 


~ on 


CHURCH 


members are no better than others. 
Their lives are inconsistent,” and so 


“Yes,” said the preacher, “that’s 
too true. Church members are not 
what they ought to be. . . .” 

“The ministers are no good,” said 
another ; “they are not like they used 
to be.” 

“Unhappily that is true, too,” ad- 
mitted the preacher again, “we are a 
poor lot.” 

And so objections were mentioned 
one after another and the pastor 
wrote them down on paper: “Hyp- 
ocrites in the church,” “the church 
is a rich man’s club,” “Christians 
don’t believe the Bible any more,’— 
twenty-seven in all. They occupied 
about one hour. 

When they were through the 
pastor read off the whole list, then 
folded the paper and tossed it 
aside, saying: 

“Boys, you have objected to us 
pastors, to the church, to church 
members, to the Bible and other 
things, But You Have Not Said A 
Word Against My Master!” 

And in a few simple words he 
preached Christ to them as the fault- 
less One, and invited them to come 
to Him, and believe on Him. Forty- 
nine men responded. 


434. Church Members—Frozen 


At the wreck of the Larchmont 
off the Rhode Island coast last win- 
ter a father and son managed to get 
in a boat together. Refusing to 
allow the boy to help in the rowing 
the father took the oars, and with 
the boy on the back seat the battle 
to reach shore began. Finally they 
touched land, but when the father 
attempted to help the boy out he 
found him frozen stiff. Had the 
son been permitted to help with the 
oars the activity would have saved 
his life. 

Many persons in the church to-day 
are dead “chilly propositions” be- 
cause they haven’t something to keep 


CHURCH 


them busy. A working church never 
has the name of being an ‘“ice-box.” 


435. Church Members—Gloomy 


During the South African war this 
telegram came from Ladysmith: “A 
civilian has been sentenced by court- 
martial to a year’s imprisonment for 
causing despondency.” ‘The explana- 
tion given was that the man would 
go along the picket lines, saying dis- 
couraging words to the men on duty. 
He struck no blow for the enemy. 
He was not disloyal to the country. 
But he was simply a discourager. It 
was a critical time. The fortunes 
of the town and its brave garrison 
were trembling in the balance. In- 
stead of heartening the men on 
whom the defense depended and 
making them braver and stronger, 
he put faintness into their hearts 
and made them less courageous. 
The court-martial adjudged it a 
crime to speak disheartening words 
at such a time. And the court- 
martial was right. 

There are men in every com- 
munity who are doing the same 
thing. They go about everywhere 
as discouragers. Happy is the 
church which has not one or more 
such members. 


436. Church Members—Untrue 


Not all compasses are trust- 
worthy. If the magnetic needle has 
lost its sensitiveness, or if other 
parts of the compass are not just 
what they should be, we have an 
unsafe instrument. A pastor wrote 
the following message for his people, 
in his church bulletin: “I have a 
pocket-knife designed for camp 
use. It has a number of things not 
found in the ordinary knife; one of 
these is a compass. One day I was 
turning it about, testing the com- 
pass, which was evidently untrue to 
the magnetic pole. The needle 
gyrated in a most unexpected way 
without any apparent cause. <A 
young man standing near by and 


159 


watching the needle said, ‘I should 
hate to be guided by that compass. 
It would never get a fellow home.” 
Are we the sort that will get people 
safely home? Other lives are 
looking to us to show them the way. 
If we have lost our sensitiveness to 
the Pole Star, our Lord Jesus, or if, 
while still sensitive, we are letting 
things get between ourselves and 
him, we cannot point true. What 
a tragedy if others should be saying 
of us: “I should hate to be guided 
by that compass. It would never get 
a fellow home.” 


437. Church—Decaying 


In the office of one of the largest 
railroad companies there is tacked 
on the wall a large blueprint bearing 
these words: A TRAIN STAND- 
ING STILL COSTS MONEY. And 
after reading it one must realize that 
there is the reason for the success 
of this road. 

But that is not the great thought 
that this blueprint brought to mind. 
That thought was how easy to make 
a slight change in the lettering 
just make the T in Train into a B— 
and then tack that quotation on every 
billboard. 

It is also true that A Church 
Standing Still costs men and women 
their souls and lives and the little 
children of the parish a chance at 
life and light. 


438. Church—Need of 


Jack Miner, of Kingsville, Ont., 
Canada, has become famous as a 
naturalist. Although a tile maker 
by trade, and not by any means a 
rich man, he yet manages to spend 
considerable money every year, in 
order that he may make boys and 
birds happy. 

But some few years ago he became 
discouraged and startled his pastor 
by requesting him to take his name 
off the roll, adding that ke was not 
fit to be a member of the church. 
“Whatever has happened to lead you 


160 


to talk like that?” queried the pastor. 
“Well,” he replied, “it’s like this. 


Yesterday afternoon I had a bit | 


of a difference with a man who came 
to my tile yard, and some words 
followed. To be perfectly frank 
about it, I got quite angry. I came 
within an inch of striking. I don’t 
think any man who gets into a 
temper like that should belong to 
the church.” 

“What was it,” said the Dominie, 
“that actually kept you from hitting 
the other man when you felt so 
much like it?” “Why, the fact that 
T was a member of the church re- 
strained me. I knew it wouldn’t do 
for a church member and a Sunday 
School teacher to use physical 
force.” 

“Really now wasn’t that splendid,” 
replied the pastor. “Your church 
membership was worth something, 
wasn’t it? It kept you from en- 
gaging in a disgraceful fight; and 
yet you want to give it up.” 

“T see the point,’ said Miner. 
“You don’t need to say another 
word. Let my name stay on the 
record.” His name has remained 
there. Yes, every man needs the 
church. It not only helps, but re- 
strains. It saves us from a thousand 
snares. “By the grace of God, | am 
what I am.” 


439. Church—Petrified 


Dr. Len G. Broughton tells of a 
church which reported to its Asso- 
ciation as follows: “Members re- 
ceived, none. Dismissed, none. Died, 
none. Married, none. Given to 
missions during the year, nothing. 
Brethren, pray for us that during 
the next year we may hold our own.” 


440. Church—Respectable 


When it was rumored that Jim 
Reagan was “drinking again,’ the 
elders, who had been uneasy at re- 
ceiving him into the church some 
weeks before, nodded their heads 
sagely. They were conservative men, 


CHURCH 


kindly disposed and tolerant in the 
main, but officially vigilant for the 
good name of the religious organiza- 
tion under their charge. 

“The man meant well,” Elder 
Stevens said to the pastor, “but he 
lacked the resolution to hold out. 
Now the unfortunate affair is the 
talk of the town, and itll be one 
thing more for persons outside to 
throw at the church.” 

“But is the reputation of the 
church the chief consideration in a 
case like this?” asked the minister. 
“Tf it were a show place, where 
fine types of Christian character 
were kept on exhibition, we should 
have to get rid of Jim Reagan, and, 
indeed, I’m not sure the Lord would 
have much use for the rest of us, 
either. But it isn’t. It’s more like 
a school, where little children learn 
the A B C of right living at the 
feet of Jesus; or if you like, it’s a 
hospital, where God uses us as 
doctors and nurses to bring back 
sick souls to health. 

“When little Stella McKane was 
taken to Mercy Hospital last winter 
the surgeons on the staff agreed that 
she hadn’t one chance in ten but the 
hospital didn’t shut its doors against 
her on that account, although, of 
course, every unsuccessful operation 
counts against it. If little Stella had 
a chance for life—even the slen- 
derest chance—the hospital was 
there to make the most of it. If Jim 
Reagan has a fighting chance for 
a better life here and a bigger life 
up above—’ 

“We've got to make the most of 
it,’ Elder Stevens said eagerly; but 
the minister stopped him with a 
slight uplift of the hand. 

“Wait! Jim came to me last night 
and told me the whole story. He 
met an old acquaintance and drank 
with him, and that was the be- 
ginning. The next morning he came 
to himself in a pool of muddy water 
by the roadside. What do you 
suppose he said to himself when he 


CHURCH 


raised up on his elbow and realized 
the situation? ‘Ye son of God, what 
for are ye lyin’ here in the gutter?” 
The hopeful thiny is that Jim 
didn’t forget who he was, where 
there wasn’t as much as a hint of it 
in his wretched surroundings. The 
gutter wasn’t the level of life on 
which he meant to live, and he’s been 
trying ever since to climb back. It’s 
our business to keep him from get- 
ting in again.” 

“Yes, it’s our business,” the others 


echoed seriously —Youth’s Com- 
panion. 
441. Church—Salvation in 


The Rev. Henry Howard of Aus- 
tralia tells a story of a ship wrecked 
on a coral reef in southern seas. The 
crew got ashore as they could, some 
on floating timbers, some on hen- 
coops, some on nutmeg graters! 
Ashore, they hugged the coast, fear- 
ing to go inland lest it might prove 
to be a cannibal island. They had 
no special desire to be clubbed and 
eaten. Presently one of them, more 
adventurous than the rest, climbed a 
nearby hillock. Having won his 
summit, his fellows saw him waving 
his arms excitedly and invitingly and 
heard him shout, “Come along, boys, 
we're all right. Here’s a church.” 
There wasn’t one of that crew who 
didn’t feel safer because the good 
news had been proclaimed there. 
But for that their lives would have 
been little worth. Against such a 
background we see more clearly the 
significance of the Church. It is the 
light against the darkness, and the 
men in need thank God for the 
mercy of that light. 


442. Church—Scandals of 


Some one tells the story of a 
wise and godly Scottish minister who 
was approached by one of his pa- 
rishioners wanting to tell his pastor 
of the wrongdoings of some of the 
church members. The pastor asked, 
“Does anybody else know this but 


161 


you?” “No, sir.” “Have you told it 
to anybody else?” “No,” “Then,” 
said the good man, “go home and 
hide it away at the feet of Jesus, and 
never speak of it again, unless God 
leads you to speak to the man him- 
self. If the Lord wants to bring a 
scandal upon his church, let him do 
it; but don’t you be the instrument 
to cause it.” 


443. Church Tramp 


We mean the person who visits 
around from church to church with- 
out settling down with any congre- 
gation. He is found in every com- 
munity, and he bears the same re- 
lation to the life and work of the 
churches that the ordinary tramp 
bears to society. 

He does not like to work. He 
thinks the churches are good things 
and that they ought to be sustained, 
but he leaves it to others to sustain 
them. He is willing to enjoy the 
privileges of an open sanctuary, but 
not to bear the responsibilities for 
keeping it open. The burdens that 
must rest upon some shoulders if a 
house of worship is to be sustained 
affect him as the sight of the axe 
and the woodpile affect his ordinary 
namesake. He gets his dinner and 
leaves the premises. If he can eat 
without working, why should he 
work? In other words, like his 
namesake, he is a parasite. To the 
church life from which he draws 
he makes no contribution of time or 
money or service. No doubt when- 
ever he attends divine worship he 
is made welcome. The hospitality 
of the churches is impartially ex- 
tended to all. But it is the unique 
characteristic of the church tramp 
that he is willing to accept it year 
after year without making any re- 
turn. The churches may not be im- 
poverished by their giving, but he 
is by his withholding. He allows 
himself to become a dependent upon 
their charity. If there is sickness in 
his family, or a funeral, or the need 


162 


of any ministerial service, one of 
the churches must lend him its 
pastor. He has no right to demand 
the services of a minister. He has 
established no claims to pastoral 
care of any sort. Everything he gets 
in this line from his preaching to 
the burial of his dead, is provided 
for him at the cost of other people. 
One would think that no person who 
valued the offices of the church 
enough to ever seek them would con- 
sent to occupy this position of 
mendicancy. If his neighbors -were 
equally lacking in sense of duty and 
self-respect, there would be no 
pastors in the community for him to 
call upon. 

It is the misfortune of the church 
tramp that he is commonly 1m- 
pervious to the truth that would 
show him what manner of man he 
really is. That is because he does 
not go to church to hear God speak, 
but to hear what men will say. He 
is not thinking of the minister as an 
ambassador of God, delivering the 
message which he has received from 
God, but as a man by whom he ex- 
pects to be pleasantly entertained for 
a little while. If the entertainment 
is not forthcoming he votes the 
service a failure. In his peregrina- 
tions he will in the future avoid the 
scene of his disappointment. At 
least he will keep going till he finds 
that the entertainment is no better 
in other churches. It is one of the 
blessings of having one’s own 
church-home, with the same pastoral 
ministrations from week to week, 
that mere curiosity forms so little 
part of our feelings when we enter 
the sacred place. We are familiar 
with the services, we know in 
general what sort of a sermon we 
will hear, and we can join in the 
worship sympathetically and heartily, 
with minds alert that we may miss 
nothing that is profitable for cor- 
rection or instruction. It is the bane 
of the church tramp that in his itch 
for novelty and entertainment he has 


CHURCH 


lost sight of the fact that “the Lord 
is in his holy temple,” and that that 
which invests the place and hour 
with sacred significance is the open 
privilege of saving and sanctifying 
fellowship with him. 

No man can take to tramping 
without his looks betraying him. 
His rags and dirt and disordered 
aspect will tell the story of his 
vagrancy. His unkempt appearance 
will proclaim him a man without a 
home. And the church tramp will 
likewise carry the marks of his 
homelessness. His defective knowl- 
edge of spiritual things, the absence 
of the soul culture that results from 
permanent religious environments, 
the callousness to truth produced by 
wandering from church to church to 
hear men rather than the counsel of 
God, inefficiency and unwillingness 
for the service by which the kingdom 
of God is advanced and made vic- 
torious—these are some of the things 
that will invariably distinguish the 
church vagrant. He will not per- 
sonally participate in the benediction 
which the psalmist pronounces on 
those who dwell in God’s house, nor 
will he count for anything in the 
redemption of the world from the 
thraldom of evil, until he stops 
tramping, and chooses for himself 
a church-home in which he will 
abide—The Lutheran Observer. 


444. Church—Trouble in 

The statement was made to me by 
a friend who gave it as a reason 
for remaining out of the Church. 
He believed he was saying some- 


thing which justified his course. He ~ 


believes in Jesus, but discounts 
heavily the Church which Jesus 
founded and commissioned. The 
faults of the Church are most 
clearly seen by those who are doing 
the tasks assigned to the Church and 
who are responsible for her nurture. 
Men do not remain aloof from 
families, yet there never has been an 
ideal family except in poetry and 


CHURCH 


fiction. The application of the 
principle would estop all effort in 
every line of service. The Church 
is not an abstract body of perfect 
beings. Her members are people 
with prejudices and bad tempers and 
bad judgment and all that, but folks 
for whom Christ died. 

It is an old story. In Paul’s 
church at Philippi, Euodias and 
Syntyche had rival plans for the 
Ladies’ Aid and they were disrupting 
the church by their arguments. It 
must have been very damaging, for 
Paul wrote and besought them to 
get together. Prominent men in an- 
other church made shipwreck of 
faith. It was disconcerting, but 
these leaders on the shoals were no 
argument against the Church. In 
Corinth the Church was split over 
whether a Christian might go into 
the public market and buy meat for 
his table without disloyalty to Christ. 
Modernism broke out in another 
church and spiritualized the resurrec- 
tion. Paul called attention to the 
harm the babblers were doing and 
kept on building churches. He made 
note of a defection led by Phygellus 
and Hermogenes. In the important 
church of Ephesus a man by the 
name of Diotrephes aspired to 
leadership without spiritual qualifi- 
cations. He so longed for pre- 
eminence that he ignored the apostle 
John. So the story runs in the New 
Testament, not to speak of the Old, 
and has continued to run ever since. 

But I have always had the com- 
forting notion that our Lord foresaw 
all this. Satan tempts good-men to 
remain aloof from the Church be- 
cause of human weaknesses; for the 
same reason Christ urges good men 
to enlist in the Church for service. 
Mistakes look worse in the Church 
than anywhere else. Hypocrisy be- 
comes evident only when it crawls 
out of the world into the Church. 
On the background of the high 
aspirations of men and the moral 
beauty of Christ it is seen for what 


163 


it is. People who are looking for 
a utopian church will never find it 
on earth. With the sympathy, 
patience and charity of Christ, let 
us carry on in His own organization. 
—William M. Curry. 


445. Churches—Real 


If you want to work in the kind of 
a church 
Like the kind of a church you like, 
You needn't slip your clothes in a 
grip 
And start on a long, long hike. 


You'll only find what you left behind, 
For there’s nothing that’s really 
new; 
It’s a knock at yourself when you 
knock your church; 
It isn’t your church, it’s YOU. 


Real churches aren’t made by men 
afraid 
Lest somebody else goes ahead; 
When everyone works and nobody 
shirks, 
You can raise a church from the 
dead. 


And if while you make your per- 
sonal stake, 
Your neighbor can make one, too, 
Your church will be what you want 
to see— 
It isn’t your church, it’s YOU. 


446. Churches—Worldly 


In Brazil grows a common plant 
called “matador,” or “murderer.” 
Its slender stem creeps along the 
ground till it meets a vigorous tree; 
then, with clinging grasp, it cleaves 
to it, and, as it climbs, keeps, at short 
intervals, sending out arm-like 
tendrils that embrace it. As the 
“murderer” ascends these ligatures 
grow larger and clasp tighter. Up it 
climbs a hundred feet, two hundred, 
if need be, until the loftiest spire is 
gained and fettered. Then the 
parasite shoots a huge, flowery head 
above the strangled summit, and 


164 


thence, from the dead tree’s crown, 
scatters its seeds to do again the 
work of death. Even so, worldliness 
has strangled more churches than 
ever persecutions broke.—S. Coley. 


447. Conforming 


We clip the following from the 
weekly paper of a university church: 

I have often heard men and 
women say: 

“If I could find a church which 
did not insist upon creed and 
ceremonial—a church where money 
was not the everlasting theme—l 
would attend.” Here we say no 
creed, we have no ceremonial, the 
service is simple and congregational, 
the music is beautiful, the preaching 
varied—all the seats are free, and 
there are no collections—an ideal 
church. Yet literally hundreds of 
students never darken the church 
doors.—North American Student. 

In 1 Samuel 12:2 this church could 
have found light on the question: 
Transform, not conform. 


448. Contrary People 


The patient but vain effort on the 
part of a khaki-clad driver to in- 
duce a mule, drawing what appeared 
to be a load of laundry through the 
gateway of a local hospital, afforded 
considerable amusement to the boys 
in blue who were watching the pro- 
ceedings. The mule would do any- 
thing but pass through the gateway. 

“Want any ’elp, chum?” shouted 
one of the boys in blue to the 
driver, as he rested a moment. 

“No,” replied the driver, “but I’d 
like to know how Noah got two of 
these blighters into the Ark!”’—Tit- 
Bits. 


449. Cross Central 

Describing the artistic glories of 
the Church of St. Mark at Venice, 
Mr. Ruskin says: “Here are all the 
successions of crowded imagery 


CHURCH 


showing the passions and _ the 
pleasures of human life symbolised 
together and the mystery of its re- 
demption: for the maze of inter- 
woven lines and changeful pictures 
lead always at last to the Cross, 
lifted and carved in every place and 
upon every stone; sometimes with 
the serpent of eternity wrapped 
round it, sometimes with doves be- 
neath its arms and sweet herbage 
growing forth from its feet; but 
conspicuous most of all on the great 
rood that crosses the church before 
the altar, raised in bright blazonry 
against the shadow of the apse. It 
is the Cross that is first seen and 
always burning in the centre of the 
temple; and every dome and hollow 
of its roof has the figure of Christ 
in the utmost height of it, raised 
in power, or returning in judgment.” 
—E. H. Stuart. 


450. Honor—Badge of 


A Y. M. C. A. secretary, wearing 
the Y. M. C. A. uniform, tells his ex- 
perience in New York: 

“ “Good morning, sir; that uniform 
looks good to me.’ I was thus ac- 
costed by a stranger at Forty-fifth 
Street and Madison Avenue. With- 
out asking my name, where I was 
from, who my parents were, of my 
attitude on the war, he continued: 
‘Say! I am a bank messenger; I’ve 
got $48,000 in currency in my poc- 
kets; I am afraid some of the “dips” 
may have me spotted. Won’t you 
please take this roll and walk by my 
side to the bank over on Fifth 
Avenue ?’ 

“T felt like a munition manu- 
facturer with a government contract, 
as I walked along to the bank with 
that $48,000 adorning my person. 
But the larger thought which forced 
itself upon me as the man thanked 
me at the bank was: This could not 
have been possible five years ago. 
A New York bank messenger, 
naturally suspicious of the whole 
world, handing a stranger such a 


CONFESSION 


sum of money without even asking 
his name can only be an illustration 
of the prestige of the Red Triangle, 
an emblem recognized today to the 
ends of the earth as standing for an 
unequalled, uncompromising Christ- 
like service to men. 

“After going to my hotel and 
brushing up that uniform a little 
more carefully than usual, I won- 
dered if any other uniform would in 
this critical and commercial day have 
been so recognized—and trusted.” 

Paul was able to bear testimony 
that he bore about on his body “the 
marks of the Lord Jesus.” It was 
not in a spirit of idle boasting that 
he made that declaration. He was 
proud that he was a “bondservant of 
Jesus Christ,” and that he could 
show the signs of his servitude. 

The Christian should be able to 
show “the marks” of his devotion to 
his Lord and Master. And more 
than that. He should so exhibit 
“the marks” in his daily life, not in 
lordly ostentation, but in unconscious 
devotion through service and char- 
acter, that those whom he meets in 
the various currents of this life may 
know that he has been with Jesus 
and learned of him; that he is a 
disciple of the Master; that he is 
a servant of him who, long ago, 
took upon himself the form of a 
servant in order that he might ful- 
fill the purpose of his Father in 
heaven. 


451. Pew—Anchored to 


Roy B. Guild, of the Men and 
Religion Forward Movement, tells 
the following: “A few months ago 
while touring near Alexandria, I 
noticed two Turkish warships which 
I immediately proceeded to snap 
with my camera. The captain of the 
vessel on which we were sailing 
noticing my interest in them said 
with a smile, ‘Yes, Mr. Guild, they 
look formidable, but they are per- 
fectly harmless. They were anchored 
there eight years ago and haven't 


165 


turned a wheel since. That’s 
mighty like some church members I 
know. Joined to a church, anchored 
to a pew for eight years and never 
turned a wheel.” 


452. Worry—Cure for 


Every woman except one at the 
Ladies’ Aid Society had been com- 
plaining that the dry season would 
ruin the crops; when they asked her 
if the drought had not hurt her 
fruit or garden, she said: “Yes, but 
Pll tell you what cured me of worry- 
ing. I used to fret over everything, 
and one spring when IJ sat down to 
have a good cry because an un- 
timely frost during peach-blossom- 
ing threatened to ruin our splendid 
prospects for fruit, my Aunt Martha 
came in, and reminded me that she 
had lived eighty years, and the 
world’s crop of provisions had never 
failed yet. ‘If we don’t have peaches, 
we'll have pumpkins,’ said she. And 
I’ve noticed since then that in spite 
of all the frosts and droughts I’ve 
never suffered for food, and I don’t 
believe you have, either.” They all 
smiled rather sheepishly, and the 
president said, thoughtfully: “That’s 
true. ‘Peaches or pumpkins. I'l 
try to remember that.” 


CONFESSION 


453. Confession—A Noble 


About the year 280, a number of 
Christians were sentenced to be tor- 
tured in a public place by order of 
the heathen emperor Maximinianus. 
Among the emperor’s soldiers who 
stood by there was a young officer 
by the name of Adriannus, twenty- 
eight years of age. He stood there 
wrapt in deep thoughts, whilst his 
look was fixed upon the Christian 
martyrs. All at once he quickly 
stepped up to them and said, “I be- 
seech you by the God whom you 
worship that you tell me who gives 


166 


you this strength and joy in the 
midst of your sufferings.” The 
martyrs replied, “Our dear Lord 
Jesus Christ, in whom we believe.” 
“And what is the end of all your 
tortures?” asked the young officer. 
The martyrs said, “Eye hath not 
seen, nor ear heard, neither have en- 
tered into the heart of man, the 
things which God hath prepared for 
them that love him. But God hath 
revealed them to us by his spirit.” 
1 Cor. 2:9, 10. When the young 
officer had heard this answer, he 
stepped up to the heathen judges and 
said, “Take down my name; I also 
am a Christian!” 

The emperor, having heard of this 
incident, ordered Adriannus to be 
thrown inte prison. Here he was 
more fully instructed in the Chris- 
tian faith by his fellow-prisoners 
and strengthened in his love to the 
Saviour. All the great tortures 
which he had to suffer at the hands 
of the heathen could not make him 
deny his faith. Amid his sufferings 
he died a noble martyr’s death and 
entered the joy of his Lord whom he 
so nobly confessed. 


Nn 454 Contfession—Christ’s 


Since coming to Rochester, I have 
heard from the lips of one of the 
great preachers of the city the story 
of the dream of a great minister, 
who was noted for his Christ-like 
spirit, as well as his consecrated 
ability. 

He dreamed that he had died and 
stood at the gate of heaven, knock- 
ing for admission. He gave his 
name, only to be told that his name 
did not appear upon the books. At 
last, after earnest entreaty, he was 
bidden to enter in and was told he 
would have the privilege of appear- 
ing before the Judge of all the earth, 
and if he could stand his test he 
might abide in heaven forever. 
Standing before his throne, which 
was most sublime in its appearance 
and surroundings, he gave his name, 


CONFESSION 


and the following questions were 
put to him: 

“Have you led a righteous life?” 
And he said: “No.” 

“Have you always been kind and 
gentler” And again he replied in 
the negative. 

“Have you always been forgiving 
to those who have been around 
your” He said: “Alas, no, I have 
miserably failed here.” 

“Have you always been honest and 
just?” And he answered: “I fear 
not.” 

As question after question was 
put to him by the Judge, his case 
seemed more and more hopeless. 
The last question was asked him, 
and to that, too, he was obliged to 
give the same negative reply. 

Just when he seemed to be in 
despair, the brightness about the 
throne became brighter, and sud- 
denly he heard a beautiful voice, the 
most beautiful to which his ears had 
ever listened. It was sweeter than a 
mother’s voice; it was more beauti- 
ful than all the music of heaven; it 
filled all the arches of the skies and 
thrilled the soul of this man as he 
stood before the Judge trembling, 
and was about to fall. The speaker 
said: “My Father, I know this man. 
It is true that he was weak in many 
ways, but he stood for me in the 
world and I take his place here be- 
fore Thee.” Just as the last words 
ot the sentence were spoken, the 
dream was over, and the man awoke; 
but he had had his lesson, and it is 
a lesson for all of us. We have in 
ourselves no standing before God; 
it must be in Christ. If we have 
any hope in the hereafter, it must 
be in him who is God’s only begotten 
Son, our mediator and sacrifice. 


455. Confession of Sins 


Luther was one day seated in the 
confessional at Wittenburg. Many 
of the townspeople came successively 
and confessed themselves guilty of 
great excesses. Adultery, licentious- 


CONSCIENCE 


ness, usury, ill-gotten gains—such 
are the crimes acknowledged. 

He reprimands, corrects, instructs. 
But what is his astonishment when 
these individuals reply that they will 
not abandon their sins! . . . 
Greatly shocked the pious monk de- 
clares that, since they will not 
promise to change their lives, he 
cannot absolve them. The unhappy 
creatures then appeal to their letters 
of indulgence; they show them, and 
maintain their virtue. But Luther 
replies that he has nothing to do 
with these papers, and adds, “Ex- 
cept ye repent, ye shall all likewise 
perish.” They cry out and protest; 
but the doctor is immovable. They 
must cease to do evil and learn to 
do well, or else there is no absolu- 
tion.—D’ Aubigne. 


456. The General Confession 


A man will confess sins in general; 
but those sins which he would not 
have his neighbor know for his right 
hand, which bow him down with 
shame like a wind-stricken bulrush, 
those he passes over in his public 
prayer. Men are willing to be 
thought sinful in disposition; but in 
special acts they are disposed to 
praise themselves. They therefore 
confess their depravity and defend 
their conduct, making themselves to 
be wrong in general, but right in 
particular—H. W. Beecher. 


CONSCIENCE 


457. Conscience—A Live 


That “still small voice” of the 
Almighty within our breast en- 
deavors so ardently to restrain us 
from sin, and after we have sinned 
to shame to repentance. A former 
Elgin young man recently stole 
$17,000 from a western post-office 
where he was employed. So furi- 
ously did his conscience lash him 
that he never even had the courage 
to count the money. When he 


say to the Lord: 


167 


wished to take some of it out from 
its hiding place in an old trunk he 
would thrust in his hand quite 
blindly and pull out several bills. 
Commenting on his conviction which 
followed his apprehension in July, a 
newspaper said: “His punishment 
did not begin when he was sentenced 
to serve a sentence in the federal 
prison. It began at the time he 
sneaked into the postoffice and took 
the money from the safe. Perhaps 
it began even before that, when he 
was carrying the combination to the 
safe and begining to consider the 
possibility of getting away with the 
money.” All the time God was 
warning him through a voice that 
must have sounded to him like a 
fire-bell clanging at the dead of 
night. 


458. Conscience—Awakened 


Why did Adam and Eve hide 
when God walked in the garden at 
the cool of the day? Why did Cain 
“My punishment 
is greater than I can bear?” Why 
did Ahab say to the Prophet: “Hast 
thou found me, O mine enemy?” 
before Elijah had said a word to 
him? Why did mighty Felix tremble 
before the captive Paul? These all 
were the workings of conscience, 
that judge in the soul, whom it is 
so hard to silence. The following 
are some of the historical instances, 
showing his power: 

Charles IX of Spain, the murderer 
of the Huguenots, said to Dr. Am- 
brosius Pare: “Doctor, for months 
I have been in a fever, physically and 
spiritually. If only I had spared the 
innocent, the weak minded and the 
cripples!” Charles II of Spain 
could not sleep except a priest and 
two monks were in his bed room. 
Cardinal Beaufort, who had the 
Duke of Gloucester executed, often 
cried out in his sleep: “Go away, 
why do you look at me so?” 

And Richard III, who murdered 
his two nephews, often got up in the 


168 


night, took his sword and fought 
with spirit foes. 


459. Conscience—Educated 


Gov. Folk, speaking on “An Era 
in Conscience,” said: 

“Six years ago a member of the 
Missouri legislature accepted $25,000 
for his vote in regard to a certain 
bill. Later he received $50,000 from 
the other side, and returned the 
$25,000. When the man, who had 
turned state’s evidence, related the 
story on the stand, the examining at- 
torney asked him, ‘Why was it that 
you returned the $25,000?’ The 
legislator drew himself up to his 
full height, and in a voice that 
showed his scorn of the lawyer for 
such a question, answered: ‘I'd 
have you to know that I’m too 
conscientious to take money from 
both sides!’ 

“The other story was of a Missouri 
legislator who, after receiving a 
bribe, left the capital by train with 
the bribe-money stuffed into his 
pocket-book. When he awoke on the 
sleeper the next morning, he could 
not find his pocket-book. He called 
the porter, who at first denied all 
knowledge of the theft, but later 
confessed and returned the money. 
The legislator thereupon read him 
a lecture. ‘See here, my man,’ said 
he, ‘I could send you to prison for 
that; but I will not. I will, how- 
ever, give you a piece of advice. 
Always remember that honesty is the 
best policy.’ 

“Six years ago,’ said Governor 
Folk, in commenting on the two 
incidents, “men would give and take 
bribes and still pride themselves on 
their honesty. They have learned 
better than that now. The public 
conscience has taught them better.” 


460. Conscience—Faulty 

In speculation, dancing, Sunday- 
cycling, theatre-going, or use of in- 
toxicants, a man may say “I see no 
harm in it’; but the fact that he 


CONSCIENCE 


sees no harm in it does not settle the 
question. 

Even after John Newton, who wrote 
some of our favorite hymns, had 
been cured of his wild life, and had 
become devoutly Christian, he saw 
no harm in holding property in 
slaves—until by and by his judg- 
ment was further enlightened—and 
many of the devout among his con- 
temporaries—among them Mr. Glad- 
stone’s father—were in a like po- 
sition. Jephthah saw no harm— 
though much sorrow—in putting his 
daughter to death as a sacrifice; 
Paul saw no harm in persecuting 
the first Christians; Mr. Charring- 
ton saw no harm in making his 
livelihood out of the sale of al- 
coholic liquor, until his eyes were 
opened to see more clearly what in 
truth he was doing. Our consciences 
are often both easy and ill-instructed, 
and they may need to be both sharp- 
ened and enlightened ere we can 
wisely draw the line between the 
right course and the wrong. 


461. Conscience—Fearful 


“Sitting down beside the great 
Makaba,” says Dr. Moffat, “illustri- 
ous for war and conquest, I stated 
that my object was to tell him my 
news. In the course of my remarks, 
the ear of the monarch caught the 
startling sound of a resurrection. 
‘What,’ he exclaimed with astonish- 
ment, ‘what are these words about? 
The dead, the dead arise?’ ‘Yes,’ 
was my reply, ‘all the dead shall 
arise.” ‘Will my father arise?’ ‘Yes,’ 
I answered, ‘your father will arise.’ 
‘Will all the slain in battle arise?’ 
‘Yes” ‘And will all that. have been 
killed and devoured by lions, tigers, 


hyenas, and crocodiles again re- 
vive?’ ‘Yes; and come to judg- 
ment. This I repeated with in- 


creased emphasis. After looking at 
me for a few moments, he said, 
‘Father, I love you much. Your 
presence and your visit have made 
my heart white as milk, but the 


CONSCIENCE 


words of a resurrection are too great 
to be heard. The dead cannot rise. 
They must not arise!’ ‘Why,’ I 
inquired, ‘must I not speak of a 
resurrection?’ Raising and uncover- 
ing his arm, which had been strong 
in battle, and shaking his head as if 
quivering a spear, he replied, ‘I have 
slain my thousands, and shall they 
arise?’ ” 


462. Conscience-—H ocodwinked 


A somewhat amazing fact in the 
strange and contradictory character 
of Samuel Pepys is the constant 
element of subilety which blends 
with so much frankness. He wants 
to do wrong in many different ways, 
but he wants still more to do it 
with propriety, and to have some 
sort of plausible excuse which will 
explain it in a respectable light. Nor 
is it only other people whom he is 
bent on deceiving. Were that all, we 
should have a very simple type of 
hypocritical scoundrel, which would 
be as different as possible from the 
extraordinary Pepys. There is a 
sense of propriety in him, and a 
conscience of obeying the letter of 
the law and keeping up appearances 
even in his own eyes. If he can 
persuade himself that he has done 
that, all things are open to him. He 
will receive a bribe, but it must be 
given in such a way that he can 
satisfy his conscience with ingenious 
words. The envelope has coins in 
it, but then he opens it behind his 
back and the coins fall out upon the 
floor. He has only picked them up 
when he found them there, and can 
defy the world to accuse him of 
having received any coins in the 
envelope. It is a curious question 
what idea of God can be entertained 
by a man who plays tricks with 
himself in this fashion. Of Pepys 
certainly it cannot be said that God 
‘fs not in all his thoughts,” for the 
name and the remembrance are con- 
stantly recurring. Yet God seems 
to occupy a quite hermetically sealed 


169 


compartment of the universe; for 
His servant in London shamelessly 
goes on with the game he is play- 
ing, and appears to take a pride in 
the very conscience he systematically 
hoodwinks.—J. Kelman. 


463. Conscience—Infallible 


The Rev. Harrington C. Less said 
not long ago at Keswick, England, 
in a discussion of conscience that un- 
aided it is a goad, but aided it is a 
guide. I think its tendency is in- 
fallibly correct when it says, “Do 
right at any cost,” but its direction 
is not infallibly correct, and we need 
something to show us what is right 
after conscience has said, “Do right 
at any cost.” It is lke the sighting 
of a rifle. If a rifle had only one 
sight you would not very often hit 
the object you aim at, but the rifle 
must have two sights, and if both 
come level to your eye there is a 
chance of your hitting the mark. 
Now, you have conscience as one 
sight. What do you need at the 
other end? You need the revelation 
of God, as you lave it here in 
our Bible, his written word; and as 
these two are brought into line and 
relation you will find the life which 
begins to approximate the will of 
God. 


464. Conscience—Seared 


As the old historian says about 
the Roman armies that marched 
through a country burning and de- 
stroying every living thing, “They 
make a solitude and they call it 
peace.” And so men do with their 
consciences. They stifle them, forcibly 
silence them, somehow or other; and 
then, when there is a dead stillness 
in the heart, broken by no voice of 
either approbation or blame, but 
doleful like the unnatural quiet of a 
deserted city, then they say it is 
peace.— Maclaren. 


465. Conscience—The Awakened 
Those who have seen Holman 


170 


Hunt’s picture of the “Awakened 
Conscience” will not soon forget it. 
There are only two figures—a man 
and a woman, sitting in a somewhat 
gaudily furnished room, beside a 
piano. His fingers are on the in- 
strument. His face, which is reflected 
in a mirror, is handsome and vacant, 
evidently that of a man about town, 
who supposes the brightest part of 
creation is intended to administer 
to his amusement. A music-book on 
the floor is open at the words, “Oft 
in the stilly night.” That tune has 
struck some chord in his companion’s 
heart. Her face of horror says 
what no language could say, “That 
tune has told me of other days 
when I was not as now.” The tune 
has done what the best rules that 
ever were devised could not do. It 
has brought a message from a 
Father’s house.—Denton. 


466. Conscience, the Guide 


A man may cut away every mast 
on his ship, and yet pursue his 
voyage. A man may have every- 
thing on deck carried . overboard, 
and yet make some headway. A 
man in the middle of the ocean can 
afford to lose everything else better 
than he can afford to lose the com- 
pass in the binnacle. When that is 
gone he has nothing to steer by. 
And that conscience which God has 
given you is your compass and 
guide.' You can afford to lose 
genius, and taste, and reason, and 
judgment, better than that. Keep 
that as the apple of your eye. Keep 
it clear, and strong, and discerning. 
Be in love with your conscience; and 
let your conscience be in love with 
God.—H. W. Beecher. 


467. Conscience—Thiet’s 


The owner of a Philadelphia de- 
partment store told me recently that 
hardly a week passes but he receives 
in the mail money which has been 
sent for something that has been 
stolen from the store. This varies 


CONSCIENCE 


in amounts from I0 cents to 10 
dollars. It would seem from this 
statement that the eighth command- 


-ment of the decalogue is one that 


should receive more reverent at- 
tention. The number of those who 
break this commandment must be 
large. What a wise provision has 
been made for the direction of a 
man’s moral nature. Conscience 
sits enthroned amidst the multitude 
of passions that rule in each life and 
direct them. Conscience makes 
cowards or heroes of us all. Seldom 
will we go wrong if we follow the 
dictates of conscience. There is no 
happiness to be gotten out of a thing 
that is stolen. The conscience of a 
thief is as restless as the tides of 
the ocean. Only the things which 
we acquire by honest work are the 
things we enjoy. Things that come 
easy, go easy. What we have 
labored and sacrificed for, that we 
enjoy. We appreciate the things we 
get by our own toil even more than 
those things which are given to us. 
By our efforts we work love into and 
through the things we are striving 
for. The things that are given to 
us are covered with a veneer of love. 
The things we work for have an 
intrinsic love value. 


468. Conscience—Voice of 


That grand old bell in St. Paul’s 
Cathedral, London, is seldom heard 
by many during the business hours 
of the day. The roar and din of 
trafic in the streets have a strange 
power to deaden its sound and pre- 
vent men hearing it. But when the 
daily work is over, the desks are 
locked, and doors are closed, and 
books are put away, and quiet reigns 
in the great city, the case is altered. 
As the old bell strikes eleven, and 
twelve, and one, and two, and three 
at night, thousands hear it who never 
heard it during the day. And so I 
hope it will be with many a one in 
the matter of his soul. Now, while 
in health and strength, in the hurry 


CONSECRATION 


and whirl of business, I fear the 
voice of your conscience is often 
stifled and you cannot hear it. But 
the day may come when the great 
bell of conscience will make itself 
heard, whether you like it or not. 
Laid aside in quietness, and obliged 
by illness to sit still, you may be 
forced to look within and consider 
your soul’s concerns.—Bishop Ryle. 


CONSECRATION 


469. Closing Ranks 

Melville Cox, dying at the age 
of 33, did little for Africa by his 
short four months’ labor there, but 
his farewell to a friend in Wesleyan 
University was, “If I die in Africa 
you must come and write my 
epitaph.” “I will,’ replied the 
friend, “but what shall I write?” 
“Write,’ said he with emphasis, 
“Let a thousand fall, but let not 
Africa be given up.” That sentence, 
illuminated by his sacrifice, has done 
almost as much for Africa as the 
longest life lived for Christ in it. 
Young Pitkin, of Yale, who was 
just equipped by three years in 
China for a life of great usefulness 
there, was murdered in the Boxer 
rebellion; but the short life he lived, 
combined with the sacrifice he made, 
his last message to his babe in 
America that he should grow up 
to take his place, and the tablet to 
his memory at Yale, mean an in- 
spiration for service in China tran- 
scending the most he could have done 
in a full three-score-and-ten life- 
time. Before Alexander Mackay, 
with seven others, set out for 
Uganda, a farewell meeting was held 
in the rooms of the Church Mis- 
sionary Society in London. “There 
is one thing,” Mackay said, “which 
my brethren have not said, and 
which I want to say. I want to re- 
mind the committee that within six 
months they will probably hear that 
one of us is dead.” He paused, and 


171 


there was a solemn stillness in the 
room. Then, he went on: “Yes; is it 
at all likely that eight Englishmen 
should start for Central Africa, and 
all be alive six months after? One 
of us, at least—it may be I—will 
surely fall before that. But,” he 
added, “what I want to say is this: 
when the news comes, do not be cast 
down, but send some one else im- 
mediately to take the vacant place.” 


470. Consecration—Complete 


Suppose a mother gives her child 
a beautiful flower-plant in bloom, 
and tells her to carry it to a sick 
friend. The child takes the plant 
away, and when she reaches the 
friend’s door she plucks off one leaf 
and gives it to her, keeping the 
plant herself. Then afterwards, 
once a week, she plucks off another 
leaf, or a bud, or a flower, and 
takes it to the friend, still retaining 
the plant. Has she obeyed? Nothing 
but the giving of the whole plant 
would be obedience. Yet God asks 
for all our life—heart, soul, mind, 
and strength; and we pluck off a 
little leaf of love now and _ then, 
or a flower of affection, and give 
these little things to him, keeping the 
life itself. Shall we not say, “Let 
him take all’’? 


471. Consecration—Development 
: of 
“Full consecration may in one 


sense be the act of a moment and 
in another the work of a lifetime. 
It must be complete to be real, and 
yet, if real it is always incomplete; 
a point of rest, and yet a perpetual 
progression. Suppose you make 
over a piece of ground to another 
person. From the moment of giv- 
ing the title deed, it is no longer your 
possession; it is entirely his. But 
his practical occupation of it may 
not appear all at once. There may 
be waste land which he will take 
into cultivation only by degrees. 


Just so it is with our lives. The 


172 


transaction of, so to speak, making 
them over to God is definite and 
complete. But then begins the 
practical development of consecra- 
tion.”—Frances Ridley Havergal. 


472. Consecration—Entire 


“When the people of Collatia 
would surrender to Rome they were 
asked, ‘Do you deliver up yourselves, 
the Collatine people, your city, your 
friends, your water, your bounds, 
your temples, your utensils, all things 
that are yours, both human and 
divine, into the hands of the Roman 
people?’ They replied, ‘We deliver 
up all,’ and were received.” 

Some professing Christians seek 
to say to Christ, “I surrender all 
but—” And then follows space for 
a lot of exceptions. 


473. Consecration of Talents 

A young woman who was giving 
rather largely of her none too 
abundant means, and extravagantly 
(as her friends thought) of time 
and strength and painstaking effort 
for the benefit of a little mission 
church with which she was con- 
nected, was even reasoned with by 
her pastor on the subject. “It’s an 
investment!” she answered brightly. 
“My brother is a business man. He 
works literally night and day. Every 
cent he makes, goes into the busi- 
ness. He never takes a day off: he 
thinks, eats, sleeps ‘business.’ I 
asked him what he did that way 
for, ani what do you think he 
answered me? ‘I’m putting my life 
into it, Sis,’ he said. ‘Investing 
money, time, youth, strength. By and 
by it will begin paying me dividends.’ 
You see, what I am doing? I’m 
putting my life into that!” pointing, 
as she spoke, to the modest little 
wooden church which represented 
her “investments.” 


474. Consecration—Whitefeld’s 
In the spiritual history of George 
Whitefield we have a striking ex- 


CONSECRATION 


ample of such definite and whole 
hearted consecration. With the Wes- 


_leys in the “Holy Club” of Oxford, 


he had sought with prolonged prayer 
and self-mortification for a deeper 
work of the Spirit in his heart. 
Whole days he had spent in wrest- 
ling with God for the blessing. 
He found what he sought, and, at 
his ordination, was made ready to 
give himself unreservedly to God. 
He thus speaks of- this experience: 
“When the Bishop laid his hands 
upon my head, if my evil heart doth 
not deceive me, I offered up my 
whole spirit, soul and body, to the 
service of God’s sanctuary. Let 
come what will, life or death, depth 
or height, I shall henceforth live like 
one who this day, in the presence of 
men and angels, took the holy 
sacrament upon the profession of be- 
ing inwardly moved by the Holy 
Ghost to take upon me that munis- 
tration in the church.” “I can call 
heaven and earth to witness that, 
when the Bishop laid his hand upon 
me, I gave myself up, to be a 
martyr for Him who hung upon the 
cross for me. Known unto Him are 
all future events and contingencies. 
I have thrown myself blindfolded, 
and I trust without reserve into 
His aimighty hands.” (Stevens’ His- 
tory of Methodism.)—A. J. Gor- 


don. 


475. Devotion—Ignorant 

I remember once, in the early 
summer of 1884, seeing a sight in 
India which made a permanent im- 
pression on my mind. In the 
modern busy street in Calcutta, 


called Bow Bazaar, in which the Ox- — 
ford Mission House used to stand, 


I saw by the side of the tram-line a 
man, stark naked, with chains round 
feet and hands. He was lying flat 
in the dust, measuring his length on 
the ground. He rose as I was look- 
ing, advanced a few paces, and, 
standing upright, with his feet where 


his nose had marked the dust, he 


SS ae 





































CONSECRATION 


prostrated himself again, and pro- 
ceeded to go through the same 
motions. He was a fakir or devotee 
of some sort, and I was assured that 
he was going to travel in this manner 
all the hundreds of weary miles 
which intervene between Calcutta 
and the sacred city of Benares. My 
first feeling was, I fear, one of dis- 
gust and contempt at the super- 
stitious folly of the man. But I 
hope it was soon overtaken and 
checked by a consideration both 
worthier-and with more of humility 
in it—the consideration, I mean, that 
he, in his belated ignorance of the 
character of God and of the way to 
serve Him, was taking a great deal 
more pains about his devotions than 
I was in the habit of doing with 
my better knowledge. (Bishop Gore’s 
“Prayer, and the Lord’s Prayer.”)— 
James Hastings. 


476. Gift—The Best 

An evangelist had held a service, 
at the close of which a little girl 
presented a bouquet of flowers, the 
first spring had brought forth. He 
asked, “Why do you give me these 
flowers?” She answered, “Because 
I love you.” “Do you bring the 
Lord Jesus such gifts of your love 
at times?” he inquired. “Oh,” said 
the little one, with an angelic smile, 
“T give myself to him!” 

That surely is the highest kind of 
giving, and without it, all other 
giving is in vain. To so give takes 
love and without love every sacrifice 
is profitless according to 1 Cor. 13:3. 


477. Preaching—Sacrificial 


Nothing recorded by Luke in the 
“Acts of the Apostles” printed in 
the New Testament furnishes more 
convincing evidence of the Divine 
Spiritual power resident in the in- 
spired Scriptures to transform the 
hearts and lives of men than the 
story of the Sadhu Sundah Singh, 
who has attracted such wide at- 
tention recently in the western 


173 


world. He is now but thirty-one 
years old. He was the son of a 
wealthy Sikh and was brought up 
in luxury and taught to hate Chris- 
tianity, but in school became in- 
terested in the Bible and determined 
to search it. One night he took the 
New Testament to his room and 
read it with ever increasing interest 
and devotion through the night, and 
just at dawn in prayer and self 
surrender accepted the Christ of the 
Cross as his personal Saviour. His 
proud father cast him off, his family 
poisoned him but he escaped death 
and gave himself to winning men to 
Christ. 

Dr. A. C. Millar tells the wonder- © 
ful story of his ministry: 

“He testified in his home village, 
and, persecuted and suffering from 
hunger and cold, he chose the most 
difficult and dangerous fields. For 
thirteen years he his maintained this 
sacrificial life, preaching in place and 
mountain, in city and village to the 
people of many scattered tribes. He 
lives the life of a devotee because 
his people, who despise foreigners, 
gladly hear him. Already multitudes 
who have refused to accept the 
Gospel from foreigners and from 
foreignized Indians, have accepted it 
from this Christian Sadhu. His 
poverty and hunger and bleeding 
feet attract men to Jesus. An 
educated gentleman of the Arya 
Somaj relates that one day he met 
the Christian Sadhu going up a 
mountain pass. Curiosity prompted 
him to follow the Sadhu to the next 
village to see what he would do 
there. He saw him sit down upon 
a log, and, after wiping the perspira- 
tion from his face, begin to sing a 
Christian hymn. Soon a _ crowd 
gathered and he began to speak to 
them of Christ. This angered some 
of the villagers and one man dealt 
the Sadhu so severe a blow that he 
felled him to the ground and cut 
his hand and cheek. Without a 
word the Sadhu bound up his wound 


174 


and, with blood flowing down_ his 
cheek, prayed for his enemies. This 
act and the message which fol- 
lowed not only led the gentleman 
of the Arya Somaj into the light, but 
led Kripa Ram, the villager who had 
dealt the blow, to confess Christ.” 

The old story of the Cross seems 
to have the same power as in the 
days that turned Saul the persecutor 
into Paul the Apostle, when accepted 
with the same spirit of faith. 


478. Sanctification—True 


“True sanctification is the result 
of the soul’s union with the Holy 
Jesus, the first and immediate re- 
ceptacle of the sanctifying Spirit; 
out of whose fullness His members 
do by virtue of their union with 
Him receive sanctifying influence. 
The other is the mere product of the 
man’s own spirit, which, whatever it 
has or seems to have of the matter 
of true holiness, yet does not arise 
from the supernatural principles or 
the high aims and ends thereof, for 
as it comes from self so it runs into 
the dead sea of self again, and lies 
as void of true holiness as nature 
doth of grace. They who have this 
spurious holiness are like common 
boatmen who serve themselves with 
their own oars, whereas the ship 
bound for Immanuel’s land sails by 
the blowings of the Spirit.” (four- 
fold State.) —Thomas Boston. 


479. Selfishness—Folly of 


One day I was wandering along a 
stream in eastern Kansas with my 
brother Tom. We came upon a 
mound of green leaves among the 
trees. Being inquisitive, as boys 
usually are, we investigated the 
strange growth. We found it was 
a wild grape-vine coiled on itself. 
It was a home for beetles and 
bugs and other creatures of the 
woods but it had no sign of fruit. 
Near by a sister vine of the same 
sort had reached a great sycamore 


‘promise of fruit. 


CONSECRATION 


and had climbed up over it to the 
top of the woods and had grown 
great and strong. It was full of the 
Lives that re- 
turn on themselves are haunts of all 
sorts of evil that infest human life 
and there is no fruitage. There are 
only leaves. But the life that 
reaches Christ climbs up over Him 
to fullness of life and fruitage— 
William M. Curry. 


480. Service—Sacrificial 


A heathen king who was wounded 
in battle sent in his dying hours for 
his trusted servant, and said to him, 
“Go, tell the dead I come.” The 
soldier-servant, without hesitating 
for a moment, drew his sword and 
stabbed himself to the heart, that 
he might go to the dead before his 
master, and prepare them for his 
coming. Oh that we had this spirit 
of service and of sacrifice for the 
King of kings! In His dying hour, 
He also said to us, “Go, tell the dead 
I come.”—S. J. Eales. 


481. Surrender—Complete 


There was a dramatic moment, a 
great crisis in the world’s history, 
when General Pershing placed the 
American Army under the command 
of General Foch, who had just been — 
made commander of all the allied 
forces, but none of the phrases that 
General Pershing used were widely 
quoted as epigrammatic. One which 
might so have been selected was the 
words, “Infantry, artillery, aviation, 
all that we have are yours. Dispose 
of them as you will.” 

God wants to hear the church in 
America make such a consecration as 
that. It will then be as irresistible 
as “an army with banners.” 


482. Tongue—Unconsecrated 
The most gifted men that I have 
known have been the least addicted 
to depreciate either friends or foes. 
Dr. Johnson, Mr. Burke, and Mr. 


CONSECRATION 


Fox were always more inclined to 
overrate them. Your shrewd, sly, 
evil-speaking fellow is generally a 
shallow personage, and frequently he 
is as venomous and as false when 
he flatters as when he reviles—he 
seldom praises John but to vex 
Thomas.—Sharpe’s Conversation. 


483. Unselfish Living 


When the Titanic went down, W. 
T. Stead was on his way to New 
York on the fated vessel to attend 
the Men and Religion Forward 
Movement Convention. On the 
morning that the Carpathia was 
steaming into the harbor bringing 
the survivors of the wreck, Mr. J. 
M. Whitmore said to Mr. M. A. 
MacDonald, of Toronto, and a great 
friend of Mr. Stead’s, “Is Mr. Stead 
on the Carpathia, Mr. MacDonald?” 

“No, he is not on it,” was the 
prompt answer. “What do _ you 
mean, Mr. MacDonald?” inquired 
Mr. Whitmore in great surprise at 
the sureness of the reply he had re- 
ceived. “I have known W. T. Stead 
ever since he was a young man and 
he was always ready to do the things 
he ought to do. When the Titanic 
went down, if there were others to 
get in those life boats, W. T. Stead 
stayed behind,” replied the dis- 
tinguished Canadian, paying in those 
brief words a most magnificent 
tribute to the character and memory 
of the great journalist. 


484. World—Forsaking 


“The first duty is to attach one- 
self; detachment comes afterwards. 
The chrysalis covering in which the 
butterfly was prisoned only breaks 
and falls away when the insect’s 
wings have grown—it is by opening 
that these burst their melancholy in- 
teguments. We only begin to detach 
ourselves from the world when we 
have learned to know something of a 
better. Till then we are but capable 
of disappointment and weariness, 


175 
which are not detachment.’”—AI- 
exander Vinet. 


485. Zeal—Unwearied 


“And Jesus went about in all Gal- 
ilee, teaching in their synagogues, 
and preaching the gospel of the 
Kingdom, and healing all manner of 
disease and all manner of illness 
among the people.” Matt. 4:23. 

A few years ago it was announced 
that General Booth, of the Salvation 
Army, was losing his sight, and that 
his days of usefulness were over. 
After many weeks’ seclusion this 
Christian hero of four score years 
appeared having had one eye re- 
moved and possessing only imperfect 
vision with the other. To an au- 
dience of over 4,000 in London, he 
spoke for an hour and a half. “I 
want to do more for humanity,” he 
said, “and I want to do a great deal 
more for Jesus. There are thou- 
sands of poor, wretched, suffering 
and sinning people crying out to us 
for help, and I want to do for them.” 
Verily this is the true spirit of the 
soldier of Christ—The Congrega- 
tionalist. 


486. Zeal—Unwearied 


Diamonds, as you know, have to 
be cut and polished before they 


shine. They have to be submitted 
to the grinding tool. But I read 
somewhere about a New York 


jeweller who had to confess himself 
beaten by a diamond which had been 
submitted for a hundred days to a 
grinding wheel making twenty-eight 
thousand revolutions per minute. 
The diamond came out of this ordeal 
in precisely the same condition as 
before it was touched. And there 
are men and women very like that 
refractory diamond. For all the 
discipline and training to which they 
are submitted they do not shine. 
Peter was very much of that type. 
He was desperately slow in develop- 
ing into sainthood. He fell away 


/ 
v 


176 


again and again. Men often de- 
spaired of Peter, but the Lord held 
on. And at last the gem flashed out. 
Peter became the rock. It was the 
zeal of the Lord that performed it. 
—J. D. Jones. 


CONVERSION 


/ 487, Conversion 


The following poem was given 
by Dr. Bridgeman, of Minneapolis, 
when he was preaching in Toronto 
while a delegate to the ecumenical 
assembly of Methodism. At that 
time he was in possession of only 
the first three stanzas, answering 
the question, How, When and Where 
Did I Give My Heart to Christ? 
Subsequently he visited Tunbridge 
Wells, and again referred to the 
same poem, when at the close of the 
service a lady remarked her pleasure 
at the use made of the poem: 
“But,” she said, “you did not use it 
all; you left out the best part.” 
Whereupon she told Dr. Bridgman 
that there were two other stanzas 
which complete the beautiful story 
of one’s conversion. Moreover, the 
lady told him that the author lived 
but three miles away from Tun- 
bridge Wells. The last two stan- 
zas give the positive side of con- 
version: 


You ask me how I gave my heart to 
Christ? 
I do not know, 
There came a yearning for Him in 
my soul 
So long ago. 
I found earth’s flowers would fade 
and die— 
I wept for something that could 
satisfy; 
And then—and 
seemed to dare 
To lift my broken heart to Him in 
prayer. 
I do not know—I cannot tell you 
how; 
I only know He is my Saviour now. 


then—somehow I 


CONVERSION 


Conversion and 
Sanctification 
No man ever suddenly cleared up 
forty acres of land. A man be- 
gins such a work suddenly. No man 
ever began to do a thing without 
making up his mind to do it. No 
man ever began to be a Christian 
without a volition; and no volition 
was ever anything but a flash—an 
instantaneous thing. But the voli- 
tion is the beginning. The evolution 
of Christian character is gradual.— 
H. W. Beecher. 


488. 


489. Conversion—A Doctor's 


A dark-visaged man with He- 
brew features rose in a prayer meet- 
ing in Dr. Talmage’s_ church, 
Brooklyn, and told the interesting 
story of his conversion through the 
influence of a Christian boy. He 
was a Jew, and had been a surgeon 
in the army during the civil war. 
After the Battle of Gettysburg a 
young soldier was put under his care, 
in the hospital, who refused to take 
chloroform or any intoxicant while 
his leg was amputated. He bore the 
pain bravely, only now and then 
whispering the name of “Jesus.” The 
Jewish physician hated Jesus, but 
he was astonished at “Charley’s” 
faith, and the support it seemed to 
give him. He took care of him till 
he died, and repeatedly the boy tried 
to talk with him about: his great 
Saviour, but the doctor always 
avoided that. Charley seemed to 
think of nothing else but Jesus, and 
his mother. When the end was very 
near he called the doctor to him 
and said, “Doctor, I thank you- for 
being so kind to me. When you 
were cutting off my leg I prayed to 
God to convert you and make you 
a Christian. Now, I want you to 
stay, and see me die.” The doctor 
could not stay, but the scene, and 
the dying boy’s words haunted him 
all through the war and when the 
war was over, fourteen years after- 


CONVERSION | 


wards he went into a Christian 
prayer meeting and as God would 
have it, while he was there the 
mother of that very boy related the 
story of his death, and his fidelity 
to his surgeon; and (said the 
doctor) “When I heard that I could 
not sit still. JI rose and took the 
lady’s hand in mine and said, ‘God 
bless you, my dear sister; your boy’s 
prayer has been answered. I am that 
Jewish doctor and the Lord has con- 
verted me.’ ” 


490. Conversion—A Thief’s 


Last fall in Connecticut a farmer 
was eating dinner one day, when a 
man walked into ‘his house. “Don’t 
you know me, Mr. B?” he asked. 
“Why, yes,” said the farmer, taking 
a good look at him, “the police gave 
up looking for you years ago.” 
“That’s right,” said the man. “I’ve 
come back to pay you that two 
hundred dollars, police or no 
police,” ard he laid a roll of bank 
bills before the amazed farmer, who 
had given up all hope of ever 
seeing either the money or the man 
again. 

Then the man told his story. As 
a farmer’s man, nineteen years be- 
fore, he had stolen the money and 
gone west. He had no luck, as he 
put it, and homeless and friendless 
and an outcast, he had been con- 
verted at a Salvation Army meeting, 
as a result of which he determined 
to pay back that stolen money. The 
officers of the Army found him a 
job and though it was poor pay at 
first, he worked hard and saved 
what little he could, until he got the 
whole amount, when he started to 
the farmer from whom he had run 
away as a thief. The farmer did 
not punish him, but being himself a 
Christian he recognized his sin- 
cerity and gladly forgave him. The 
restoration of the money was a 
clear proof of the man’s con- 
version, as it was of that of 
Zaccheus. 


177 


Conversion—Charlotte 
Elliott's 


Charlotte Elliott came to Caesar 
Milan and asked how she could be- 
come a Christian. The old man re- 
plied, “My dear, it is very simple. 
You have but simply to come to 
Jesus.” And she said to him, “But 
I am a very great sinner. Will he 
take me just as lam?” “Yes, he will 
take you just as you are, and no 
other way.” And then she said, “If 
he will take me just as I am, then 
I will come,” and she went home 
to her room, and sat down at her 
desk and wrote the beautiful words 
of the hymn: 


“Just as I am without one plea, 
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.” 


This is the way that Charlotte 
Elliott came to Christ, and thousands 
of others since, in the words of her 
hymn.—J. Wilbur Chapman. 


491. 


492. Conversions—Early 


Robert Hall, the prince of Baptist 
preachers, was converted at twelve 
years of age. Matthew Henry, the 
commentator, who did more than any 
man of his century for increasing 
the interest in the study of the 
Scriptures, was converted at eleven 
years of age; Isabella Graham, im- 
mortal in the Christian Church, was 
converted at ten years of age; Dr. 
Watts, whose hymns will be sung all 
down the ages, was converted at nine 
years of age; Jonathan Edwards, 
perhaps the mightiest intellect that 
the American pulpit ever produced, 
was converted at seven years of age; 
and that father and mother take an 
awful responsibility when they tell 
their child at seven years of age, 
“You are too young to connect your- 
self with the church.” That is a 
mistake as long as_ eternity.— 
Talmage. 


493. Conversion—Fruit of 


A young girl was dissatisfied with 
her home life, and was always talk- 


178 


ing of her grievances, and showing 
her discontent in voice, look and 
manner. One day a friend who met 
her was surprised at her quick step, 
bright smile and happy voice. “How 
are things at home?” the friend 
asked. “Oh, everything is just the 
same, but I am different,” was the 
reply. When we are normal we find 
plenty of reasons for thanksgiving. 


494. Conversion-—Gradual 


Big, hulking Bill Jones drew a 
dollar a day as a roustabout in a 
western factory and spent most of 
it for whisky and doggery. He 
started in to break up the noon shop 
meeting and wanted to fight. He 
did not want education or religion. 
The leader saw that he needed a 
bath and told him if he wanted one 
he might drop in at the Y. M. C. A. 
and they would take care of him. 
The next night he showed up and 
was put under the sanitary shower, 
and he came again. He braced up, 
got cleaner clothes and stopped in 
at the reading room. His wits began 
to work. Later he decided that he 
did want education and went into 
the classes in arithmetic and pen- 
manship. He brought his wife and 
little girl to the building to attend 
the lectures and entertainments and 
liked this social life better than the 


saloon’s. He got bigger wages, his 
wife got a new dress, and his 
tenement began to look like a 


house. 

Then he dropped into the services. 
The songs touched a new chord in 
his life. Then he “went in for the 
full thing’—all the Association had 
to offer—and instead of a bottle in 
Big Bill’s pocket there was a Bible, 
and he goes to bed sober at night 
after reading a Psalm and family 
prayers. 

It was first the bath and the 
gymnasium with their physical ben- 
efits; then the reading room and 
educational classes and the mental 
awakening; the entertainments and 


CONVERSION 


friendly touch, the men’s meetings 
and moral redemption, and the man 
and his life and home were different. 

That was nine years ago, and Bill 
Jones is now Mr. William Jones, 
practically in charge of the entire 
plant where he was a roustabout. 
He draws a big salary, owns a fine 
home, is a prominent member of the 
church and one of the most valued 
citizens in the comunity, while the 
little girl, whom the drunken brute 
used to beat, graduated valedictorian 
at the head of her class of 150 in 
the high school. 


495. Conversion—Huindrance to 


An Indian and a white man, being 
at. worship together, were brought 
under conviction by the same ser- 
mon. The Indian was shortly after 
led to rejoice in pardoning mercy. 
The white man, for a long time, was 
under distress of mind, and at times 
almost ready to despair; but at 
length he was also brought to a 
comfortable experience of forgiving 
love. Some time after, meeting his 
red brother, he thus addressed him: 
“How is it that 1 should be so long 
under conviction, when you found 
comfort so soon?” “O brother,” re- 
plied the Indian, “me tell you; there 
come along a rich prince; he promise 
to give you a new coat. You look at 
your coat and say: ‘I don’t know; 
my coat pretty good; I believe it will 
do a little longer.’ He then offer me 
a new coat. I look on my old 


blanket; I say, ‘This good for 
nothing” I fling it right away, and 
accept the new coat. Just so, 


brother, you try to keep your own 
righteousness for some time; you 
loth to give it up; but I, poor In- 
dian, had none; therefore, I glad at 
once to receive the righteousness of 
the Lord Jesus Christ.” 


496. Conversion—John 
Wanamaker’s 
John Wanamaker once said: 
“I was a country boy who had 


CONVERSION 


come into the city. A salesman 
asked me if I wouldn’t go to his 
church. It was a quiet, old-fashioned 
meeting. There was a handsome old 
man of about seventy-five years of 
age, who got up and in the gravest 
way said he was just waiting for 
God to take him; and he had lived 
his life; that God had been good to 
him; that religion was a good thing 
to die by. I sat ’way back, and I 
soliloquized: ‘Well, old man, you 
can’t touch me; you have lived your 
life; you haven’t any sympathy with 
a big boy; it has passed over my 
head.’ 

“Soon after a younger fellow got 
up; he was perhaps thirty-five; and 
he said, ‘I have just begun the 
Christian life. Two years ago I was 
converted; I had just begun business, 
and I had had a prejudice against 
religion. I am a great deal happier; 
I am a better business man.’ 

“T listened to him,” continued Mr. 
Wannamaker, “and I said to myself, 
‘There you are; you want to be a 
business man, and he tells you how 
you can be a better business man. 
He tells you that religion is good to 
live by. Another man tells you it’s 
good to die by.’ ‘Now, do you in- 
tend ever to be a Christian? ‘Yes.’ 
‘Well, if it is a good thing, why 
don’t you be it right away?’ I said, 
‘Yes, I will’ I waited till everybody 
went out except the janitor and the 
old minister; and as the latter came 
down the aisle he met a country boy 
coming up, and I was the chap. I 
simply said to him, ‘I have settled to- 
night to give my heart to God.’ And 
he reached out his hand, and said, 
‘God bless you, you will never regret 
it’ That was the whole business.” 


497. Conversion—Manifest 
Speaking in Bradford, England, 
Mr. Ferrens told how a Bradford 
teacher asked her scholars to name 
on their slates the most wonderful 
thing that had happened during the 
past month. One little girl wrote, 


179 


“Father has been to Eastbrook and 
got converted and I’ve got a new 
daddy.” “A new creature in Christ 
Jesus,” is what we are made when the 
converting power of the gospel lays 
hold of us. This child saw it in a 
changed father, as the early Chris- 
tians saw it in Saul of Tarsus, when 
he had seen Jesus on the highway. 
Conversion that is not seen and 
known by a changed life is not 
worth much and is discredited. 


498. Conversion—Unexpected 

Canon Aitken, the well-known mis- 
sionary of the Church of England, 
recalls an incident in the history of 
his own father’s work in Cornwall. 
Signs of a spiritual revival were 
showing themselves in the parish, 
but nothing decisive had happened. 
One evening a little group of the 
“village aristocracy” were sitting 
together in the hotel of the neigh- 
boring town, when the talk turned to 
the revival. 

“IT say, Captain Jim,” said one of 
the company to a prominent mine- 
agent, perhaps the gayest of the little 
circle, “I tell you what it is; when 
I hear of your being converted I 
shall begin to think that there is 
something in it.” 

The hearers laughed, save Captain 
Jim, to whose mind the assumption 
of his hopeless state came with a 
shock. A little later in the evening 
the company gathered in the village 
schoolroom were astonished to see 
Captain Jim walk boldly up to the 
front seat. 

Mr. Aiken announced that hymn 
of Wesley’s, wherein this stanza 
occurs: 

“Convince him now of unbelief, 

His desperate state explain; 

And fill his heart with sacred grief 

And penitential pain.” 

As he heard those words, Captain 
Jim “fell on his knees before all the 
people, with a cry for mercy on his 
life.’ He, the unexpected one, was 
the first fruit of an extraordinary 


180 


revival: he lived thereafter a godly 
life, and died a few years ago, “in 
the full faith of a Christian.” 


499. Conversion of Infidel 


The following incident was related 
by the Rev. W. J. Dawson in a 
recent sermon: 

Stanley, the great traveller, said 
that when he went to Africa to find 
Livingstone he was the _ biggest 
atheist in London. He found Liv- 
ingstone, and behind Livingstone, he 
found Christ. For as he stood day 
by day beside Livingstone in the 
Dark Continent, and saw the sim- 
plicity and love of the man, and 
how he lived unto the things he 
professed, he asked himself: “Is he 
crazy? What’s the matter with 
him?” Until, finally, through Liv- 
ingstone, something of Christ came 
into the heart of Stanley, and he 
says: “Livingstone converted me, 
but he never meant to.” And a few 
months ago this man, who described 
himself as “the biggest atheist in 
London,” dies, saying to his broken- 
hearted wife: “Do not weep; we 
shall meet again.” That from the 
man who was “the biggest atheist 
in London!” Is not that new birthe 
Have you any better phrase for it? 


500. Conversion of an Infidel 


During a series of services held in 
a Pennsylvania town by evangelist 
Crabill, a half-witted boy gave his 
heart to Christ. A few days later 
an infidel by the name of Belcher 
sought to make sport for the crowd 
of loungers at the village store by 
making light of the boy’s con- 
version. 

“Billy,” said the infidel, “I hear 
you've got religion and are on the 
way to heaven.” 

“Yes, Mr. Belcher,” quietly replied 
the boy. 

“But don’t you know there isn’t 
any heaven and that this talk about 
hell is all bosh?” 


“T don’t know about that, Mr. 


CONVERSION 


Belcher, but I figure it out this way; 
if there isn’t any heaven and there 
isn’t any hell, I’m just about where 
I was before, and no harm’s done. 
But if the preacher’s right and there 
is a heaven and there is a hell, then 
I’m going to heaven and you are 
going to hell and I’ve got two 
chances to your one. Do you take 
me for a fool?” 

The infidel was taken unawares, 
and when the laughter at his expense 
subsided he hurriedly left the store 
and returned to his work. But the 
boy’s words kept ringing in his ears, 
“T’ve got two chances to your one.” 
At last, its truth sank into his heart 
and he cried out, “The boy is right 
and I am the fool and I have the 
manhood to acknowledge it.” Then 
and there he yielded his heart to 
God. That night he came to the 
services and told the story of his 
conversion. 


sor. Convert—Dying Man’s 

Four years after the “Titanic” 
went down, a young Scotchman rose 
in a meeting in Hamilton, Can., and 
said, “I am a survivor of the Titanic. 
When I was drifting alone on a spar 
on that awful night, the tide brought 
Mr. John Harper, of Glasgow, also 
on a piece of wreck, near me. ‘Man,’ 
he said, ‘are you saved?’ ‘No,’ I said, 
‘I am not.’ He replied, ‘Believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved.’ The waves bore 
him away; but, strange to say, 
brought him back a little later, and 
he said, ‘Are you saved now?’ ‘No,’ 
I said, ‘I cannot honestly say that I 
am. He said again, ‘Believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved,’ and shortly after he 
went down; and there, alone in the 
night, and with two miles of water 
under me, I believed. I am John 
Harper’s last convert.” 


Converted—Companions of 
the 


Charles R. Ross tells of a young 


502. 


CONVERSION 


Western farmer who had been con- 
verted. It had been his custom when 
going to the village to tie his team 
by the hotel and visit the bar-room. 
After his conversion he still con- 
tinued to tie his team to the hotel 
main hitching post. The trained and 
watchful eye of a good old deacon 
noticed this, and after congratulating 
the youth upon his new start in life, 
said, “George, | am a good deal 
older than you, and I will be par- 
doned, I know, if I make a sug- 
gestion out of my wide Christian ex- 
perience. No matter how strong you 
think you are, take my advice and at 
once change your hitching post.” It 
was sensible advice. If he had 
still gone to the old place, and got 
in with the old friends at the bar, 
who can tell but he would have been 
tempted to turn back, and perhaps 
in an evil hour had fallen. “Evil 
communications corrupt good man- 
ners.” 


503. Converted in Manger 


Several years ago a daily paper 
printed a story called “The Might- 
iness of the Manger.” It told of a 
drunkard who had been the town 
ne’er-do-well. Once he had slept in 
lodging-houses; later on the floor 
of a saloon—until he was kicked 
out. One night he slept under the 
station platform, but the agent threw 
stones at him. One morning he 
awoke in a strange bed, warm and 
soft. At first he could not tell where 
it was. But when the cow by his 
side stirred, he realized that he was 
in a stable. He laughed grimly, then 
thought of breakfast. In his mind 
he went over the list of men who 
might be persuaded to help him to 
a meal. “No, I can’t ask any of 
them; they’ll say I’ve fallen too low 
for them,” he thought. While still 
wondering what to do, he heard the 
bells ringing. After .a moment of 
perplexity, he realized that it was 
Christmas Day. What was _ that 
Christmas story he had heard so 


181 


long ago? Something about a baby 
—and shepherds—yes, and a manger ! 
Then he was not the first one who 
had lain in a manger!—“He was 
thinking about me when he done it,” 
he thought. “I guess the reason he 
slept in that manger was that he 
wanted to fix it so that a poor 
fellow like me could ask him for 
things when too low down to ask 
them from any one else.” Then the 
outcast knelt and prayed the prayer 
of the publican. 


504. Election—Doctrine of 


When Senator Vance was running 
for Congress he called on an old 
negro, who had in early life served 
the Vance family. Asked after his 
health the negro replied, “Mighty 
po’ly in this worl’, but it’s all right 
over yander.” “Do you believe in 
the doctrine of election?” asked 
Vance with great solemnity. “It’s 
the doctrine of the Bible,” answered 
the old man. “Uncle Ephraim, do 
you think I’ve been elected?” asked 
Vance again. “Massa Zeb, I’d a 
leetle ruther you wouldn’t draw that 
question. I’m too near de grabe to 
tell a lie, but de fac’ am, I neber yet 
knowed nor hear tell of no man bein’ 
elected what wan’t a candidate.” 


505. Enemy—Converting an 


Dr. MacFarlane, a medical mis- 
sionary from China, told at a recent 
meeting in London of a _ young 
Chinaman who came to his hospital 
one day with a broken leg. While 
the patient was in the ward he was 
taught what sin was, and was told 
about heaven. He went home a de- 
cided Christian, and his father 
ordered him to go and worship at the 
temple as usual. In China a lad 
could be beaten to death for disobey- 
ing his father, but this courageous 
lad said, “I have learned about the 
Saviour, and I cannot worship the 
idol.” His father seized him by his 
“pigtail,” and kicked him from the 
house with a curse. The lad 


182 


wandered from village to village 
telling others about Jesus. The 
story ended as follows: “To-day, 
two or three doors from that 
father’s house, there is an unpreten- 
tious little Christian chapel, holding 
one hundred and twenty people, of 
whom forty are members of the 
church. Who is the pastor? The 
boy who had the broken leg. Who 
was the first deacon? The father 
who drove him from home with a 
curse!” 


506. Incomplete Character 


What becomes of those who reach 
high on the plane of morality, but do 
not touch the yet higher plane of 
spirituality? You might just as 
well ask me what becomes of the 
marksman who almost hits the mark, 
but does not hit it. You might just 
as well ask me what becomes of an 
anchor that is let out of a ship, and 
reaches almost to the bottom, but 
stops short without touching it. 
You might as well ask me what be- 
comes of a portrait which is 
splendidly painted, and is almost like 
the man that it is designed to repre- 
sent, and yet is not like him.—H. 
W. Beecher. 


507. Righteous—Robes of 


Preaching at Bloomsbury Chapel, 
on the contrast between the “old” 
and the “new” man, Dr. A. T. Pier- 
son in the course of his remarks 
said: “The new man is not a merely 
changed man, he is a new creation, 
with new hopes, new affections, new 
desires, new speech, new convictions, 
new emotions. It is not reformation, 
it is regeneration. Did you ever ask 
yourselves where Christ got his 
resurrection garments? The Lord 
God furnished them; they were as 
miraculous as the resurrection itself. 


Our clothing, too, must be as 
miraculous as the resurrection itself. 
Our clothing, too, must be as 


miraculous as is the new man. 


~ ulchre? 


CONVERSION 


These garments cannot be woven in 
any human loom. Are you wearing 
to-day robes belonging to the sep- 
There is always a danger 
of carrying into the new life some- 
thing belonging to the old, but unless 
you leave all behind you will have 
no lasting happiness or blessedness. 
Have you any grievance against an- 
other? If you have it is an old 
garment; throw it away. Is there a 
lie you told before you were Christ’s 
still doing its endeavor to stop its 
deadly energies? If you cheated be- 
fore your conversion you must seek 
to put the matter right. If there is 
anything hindering your new life get 
rid of it, get rid of it.” 


508. Promises—Claiming 


Carvosso had seen all his children 
converted, save one, and burdened 
with the lost one he sought counsel 
of a Christian leader, who said: 
“Why don’t you claim a promise of 
the Lord?” “I don’t understand you,” 
he replied. ‘Well, the Book is full 
of promises, some bearing right on 
your case. Seize one of these and 
throw all your weight upon it until 
God feels your confidence in 
heaven.” “T’ll do it,” said the father. 
They parted, and he looked up, and 
there came sweeping into his heart 
the words: “Thou shalt not leave 
one hoof behind thee.” It was 
enough. 

For ten days he saw no change. 
On the tenth day he was ploughing 
near his house when a message came 
from his wife: ““Do come at once, it 
seems our daughter will die.” He 
understood it, and when he reached 
the room he asked: “Daughter, 
what’s the matter?” She cried in 
agony: “Oh, father, pray for me; 
I do believe I am lost.” In a very 
little time she rested by faith upon 
the finished work of Christ for sal- 
vation, and he said: “Now, daughter, 
tell me all about it.” “I don’t know 
anything about it,” said she, “save 
that Sunday night, ten days ago just 


DEATH 


before you came home from the 
meeting something got hold of my 
heart that I could not shake off. I 
have been miserable ever since.” “I 
know all about it,’ said the father; 
“that very night I claimed the 
promise made to Israel—that is what 
has moved you.” 


DEATH 


509. Beauty—Temporal and 
Eternal 


You showed me a beautiful leaf in 
the summer-time, its color rich, its 
veins exquisitely pencilled, its tints 
matchless in their prettiness and 
delicacy. But where is its beauty 
now? It is commingled with the 
dust, and is trodden under foot of 
men. And that beautiful flower that 
you gave me? I tended it with 
scrupulous care, I protected it from 
every blast; I suffered not the sun 
to scorch it by day, nor the frost 
by night; but I could not save it 
from decay. One morning I found 
it faded, and, a little later, the petals 
scattered upon the floor. Is it not 
so with all mortal beauty? The 
bloom on the cheek, the roseate 
hue, the human face divine flushed 
with beauteous fire. How soon that 
bloom fades! One night’s deep 
grief suffices to destroy it for ever. 
How soon the eye loses its youthful 
lustre! How soon the forehead has 
lines cut right across it! How soon 
the cheeks fall back! And, when we 
are not thinking of it, old Father 
Time passes by and sprinkles on our 
heads a handful of snow, to tell us 
that the autumn has come and that 
winter is nigh—E,. D. Solomon. 


510. Christus Consolator 

“T am the Resurrection and the 
Life: he that believeth in Me, though 
he were dead, yet shall he live: and 
whosoever liveth and believeth in Me 
shall never die.”—Jesus. 


183 


Beside the dead I knelt for prayer, 
And felt a Presence as I prayed. 

Lo! it was Jesus standing there. 
He smiled: “Be not afraid!” 


“Lord, Thou hast conquered death, 
we know; 
Restore again to life,” I said, 
“This one who died an hour ago.” 
He smiled: “He is not dead!” 


“Asleep, then, as Thyself didst say, 

Yet Thou canst lift the lids that 
keep 

His prisoned eyes from ours away!” 

He smiled: “He doth not sleep!” 


“Nay, then, tho’ haply he do wake, 
And look upon some fairer dawn, 
Restore him to our hearts that 
ache!” 
He smiled: “He has not gone!” 


“Alas! too well we know our loss, 
Nor hope again our joy to touch 


Until the stream of death we 
éTross. ” 
He smiled: “There is no such!” 


“Yet our beloved seem so far, 
The while we yearn to feel them 
near, 
Albeit with Thee we trust they are.” 
He smiled: “And I am here!” 


“Dear Lord, how shall we know that 
they 
Still walk unseen with us and 
Thee, 
Nor sleep, nor wander far away?” 
He smiled: “Abide in Me.” 


511. Death a Release 


A ship is tied at the dock. The 
workmen have put its cargo on 
board, and it is ready to sail. The 
steam is up, black smoke rolling 
from a black funnel. The captain 
gives the order, the ropes are 
loosened, the ship is free; she 
moves, the dock recedes, and in an 
hour, the vessel is at sea. She was 
not made to lie forever at the dock. 
That is her place only while she is 
taking her cargo on board. A ship 
is made to sail the ocean to other 


184 


lands. So for a time the soul is tied 
up in the body at the dock in the 
world. She is taking her cargo of 
knowledge and experience and wis- 
dom and character on board. Death 
loosens the rope, that is all; it does 
not destroy the ship. 


512. Death a Sleep 


Is sleep a thing to dread? 
Yet, sleeping, you are dead, 
Till you wake and rise, 
Here, or beyond the skies; 
Why should it be a wrench, 
To leave your wooden bench? 
Why not with happy shout 
Run home when school is out? 
This is the death of Death. 
To breathe away a breath 
And know the end of strife, 
And taste the deathless life; 
And joy without a fear, 
And smile without a tear, 
And work, nor care to rest, 
And find the last, the best. 
Maltbie D. Babcock. 


513. Death—Beautiful 


There is a story told by Rev. J. 
R. Miller of a boy whose sister was 
dying. He had heard that if he 
could secure but a single leaf from 
the tree of life that grew in the 
garden of God, the illness could be 
healed. He set out to find the 
garden, and implored the angel sen- 
tinel to let him have one leaf. The 
angel asked the boy if he could 
promise that his sister should never 
be sick any more if his request were 
granted, and that she should never 
be unhappy, nor do wrong, nor be 
cold or hungry, nor be _ treated 
harshly. The boy said he could not 
promise. Then the angel opened the 
gate a little way, bidding the child 
to look into the garden for a mo- 
ment, to have one glimpse of its 
beauty. “Then, if you still wish it,” 
said the angel, “I will myself ask the 
King for a leaf from the tree of life 
to heal your sister.” The child 
looked in; and, after seeing all the 


DHATH 


wondrous beauty and_ blessedness 
within the gates, he said softly to 
the angel, “I will not ask this leaf 
now. There is no place in all this 
world so beautiful as that. There 
is no friend so kind as the Angel 
of Death. I wish he would take me 
too.” 


A514. Death’s Cradle 


A little girl had a baby sister who 
died, and the little baby was put into 
a tiny coffin. When the little girl 
saw it, she said, “Mother, baby has 
got a new cradle!” That was a 
pretty name for it. Death is but 
being lulled to sleep in the arms of 
Infinite Love. 


515. Death—Dark Room of 


Late one stormy evening the old 
doctor was summoned to see a man 
who had been attacked with a sud- 
den illness. The patient proved to 
be “Squire” Joyce, whom the doctor 
slightly knew. He examined him 
carefully, and gave him medicines. 
Then he arose to go, smiling cheer- 
fully down at the anxious face of 
the sufferer. 

“You will find yourself better in 
the morning, I hope,” he said. 

“Yes. Stay a minute, doctor, I 
want you to be honest with me. I 
have had seizures like this before. 
Shall I have them again?” 

“Tt is probable.” 

“T want the truth—all of it.” 

“Yes, they will return.” 

“IT may die in one of them—to- 
morrow ?” 

“Yes. Or, maybe, not for years. 
It is uncertain. Do not waste your 
life in anticipating them. We all 
must go through the same gate some 
day.” 

“The gate—yes! But beyond the 
gate—what is there?” 

His eyes were on the doctor’s 
face, full of doubt, almost pain. 

“What is there?” Joyce repeated, 
harshly. “You are a member of the 


DEATH 


church—a Christian. I have no re- 
ligious belief. Tell me, for the love 
of God, what is there beyond? If 
I go to-morrow, what shall I find? 
I need your help more for this than 
for my disease. I am greatly de- 
pressed, thinking of this darkness 
into which I am going. For thou- 
sands of years men have gone out 
into it, leaving loved ones behind, 
and not one has sent back a word 
to say how it fares with him—not 
one.” 

In the silence that followed the 
rain beat against the windows. 
There came a slight whimpering cry 
from without. 

“You are an old man, doctor,” 
said Joyce, turning to him again, 
“you are not far beyond the gate 
yourself. Are you not afraid of 
what may be beyond?” 


“No,” said the doctor. “No, I am 
not afraid. Look here.” He rose 
and opened the door. Outside, in 


the dark hall, lay a little fox-terrier, 
drenched with rain. He was 
crouched on the floor, his eyes fixed 
on the closed door. 

“This is my dog. He has fol- 
lowed me through the storm, and 
has been lying outside the door, 
knowing that I was within this 
chamber. He never was here be- 
fore. He did not know what was 
in this room. He did not care to 
know. I was in it, his master, 
whom he loves. He was not afraid.” 

Joyce looked at the doctor keenly 
a moment before he spoke. 

“You mean—” 

“T mean that I am like poor 
Punch. I am not afraid of the dark 
room to which I am going. I do 
not ask to know what is there. My 
Lord and Master is there. All 
these years he cared for me. I 
have been assured that in my hours 
of trial he has never failed me. 
I sincerely believe he will not fail 
me yonder.” 

“But I—I do not know him.” 

“He knows you. I am authorized 


185 


by the declarations of the Bible to 
say that his hand is stretched out 
to you. I reverently ask you to 
take it. You can accept him as your 
Guide and Teacher if you will. 
That done in sincerity, you will 
not fear the gate nor all that lies 
beyond.”—Youth’s Companion. 


516. Death—Destroyer of 


In the early days of pioneer life 
in Kentucky, a man named Mansfield 
moved with his wife and little girl 
into that country. One day a 
drunken Indian came to his house 
and demanded “fire-water.” The 
man refused to give it, and the 
Indian attempted to search the cabin. 
A fight followed, and the Indian 
was knocked down and bound till 
he recovered from his drunkenness, 
He then disappeared in the forest. 
Mansfield, knowing the revengeful 
nature of the Indian, did not ven- 
ture for weeks far from the house; 
but one day, attracted by the bark- 
ing of the dog, he went down to 
the river’s bank. Hardly had he 
reached it before his wife’s screams 
fell upon his ear. Running back 
to the house he saw the same 
Indian rushing to the forests with 
his little girl grasped in his arms. 
Falling on his knees, he aimed his 
rifle; but the terrible chance of 
killing his child so unnerved his arm 
that the bullet sped wide of the 
mark. Just then a voice said to 
him; “Shall I save your child?” Not 
waiting for an answer, the stranger 
lifted his long rifle. For a second 
swaying it, he ran his eye down 
the barrel. A quick report, a little 
cloud of smoke, and the Indian, 
throwing the child far from him, 
with a wild death-cry fell to the 
ground, dead. “Tell us your name,” 
cried the parents; and with a smile 
of kindness passing over his serious 
face he answered, “Boone,” and 
disappeared. 

When death is clutching our 
children in his embrace, let us re- 


186 


joice that the Destroyer of death is 
mightier than he. 


517. Death—Fear of 


Too many Christians suffer from 
the fear of death, though we are 
sure they do not fear as others do. 
But the flesh is weak, and we shrink 
from death. The cure for this is to 
be found in fuller confidence in our 
heavenly Father and in the assur- 
ance of immortality. 

The late “Ian Maclaren” used to 
be fond of relating the following 
beautiful little story, as serving to 
allay needless fears of God’s people 
when they enter the valley of the 
shadow of death. There was a dear 
old Scotch lady who wanted badly 
to go to the city of Edinburgh. But 
for years she could not be per- 
suaded to take the railway journey, 
because of her great dread of the 
tunnel through which she would 
have to pass. One day, however, 
circumstances arose which compelled 
her to take the train for Edinburgh. 
For a while her fears were great, 
and her agitation increased as the 
train on its journey drew near to the 
dreaded tunnel. But before the 
tunnel was actually reached, the old 
lady, worn out with excitement, 
dropped peacefully off to sleep, and 
when she awoke it was to gladly 
discover that the tunnel had been 
passed. The resurrection hope takes 
the sting out of death—H. 


518. Death—Honorable 

When the brutal emperor, Claud- 
ius, commanded the death of the 
noble Paetus, the wife of the latter 
first stabbed herself, and then 
handed the dagger to her husband, 
with the immortal word: ‘Paetus, 
it does not hurt.” Death does not 
hurt those who die for the right. 


519. Death—Infidel’s 

The French nurse who was present 
at the deathbed of Voltaire, being 
urged to attend an Englishman 


DEATH 


whose case was critical, said: “Is he 
a Christian?’ “Yes,” was the reply, 
“he is, a Christian in the highest and 
best sense of the term—a man who 
lives in the fear of God: but why 
do you ask?” “Sir,” she answered, 
“I was the nurse who attended 
Voltaire in his last illness, and for 
all the wealth of Europe I would 
never see another infidel die.” 


520. Death—Miserable 


When the members of Company 
C, Twenty-third Engineers, held 
their reunion in Philadelphia, an old 
man with wistful look attended and 
introduced himself as James A. 
Wilson, a retired farmer of Cincin- 
natus, N. Y., and father of Harry 
Wilson, one of their “buddies,” who 
died in Wilmington, July 4, 1922, a 
victim of drink and drugs. 

“IT just thought I’d like to come 
down here and talk to some of the 
boys who were with MHarry in 
France,” said the old man, shaking 
hands with some of the soldiers. 
His story was one of a lonely old 
man longing for the society of an 
only boy who was spared to come 
home from the European battlefields, 
only to die a miserable death in a 
rooming house. 

Harry was 40 years old when he 
died. He was found in an un- 
conscious condition in a third floor 
roori at 715 Market Street in the 
evening of July 4 by the police. He 
died 15 minutes after he had been 
admitted to the hospital. He had 
been employed as a farm worker in 
Christiana hundred. 

In addition to having fought in 
the World War with the American 
army, Wilson had also served with 
the Canadian forces. 


521. Death—Remembrance in 


A sick woman, being visited by 
her pastor, was asked if she knew 
the ten commandments: “Not any 
more, I am too weak,” she replied. 


DEATH 


“Do you remember any part of the 
catechism?” “Nothing at all,” she re- 
plied sorrowfully. ‘Can you, per- 
haps, repeat a psalm or a Bible 


verse?” he questioned further 
and again received a “No” as 
answer. “Well, what do you know, 


something you must remember?” “T 
know that Christ is mine,” she re- 
plied, and this time her face lighted 
up with the inner joy of this saving 
knowledge. Can you say that, too, 
friend? You need know nothing 
but that Jesus is your Saviour in 
that dark hour on Jordan’s bank. 


522. Death Sentence Reversed 


In an article entitled “Up for In- 
sanity,” in the November Atlantic, 
the writer gives a dramatic illus- 
tration of James’ warning of the 
uncertainty of life. He says, in the 
course of his narrative, of the way 
by which he regained his mental 
health: “Let me tell you something 
that occurred in connection with that 
trip—something odd, after the way 
events sometimes fall out in this 
world. 

On my way through New York 
(to Africa) I called on a cele- 
brated specialist who lived on 
University Heights. It was a stormy 
December night, and I found the 
great physician seated before an 
open fire in his library, with his 
wife, who was one of the most 
beautiful women I ever looked upon. 

The great man talked to me in- 
timately, with a fine show of friend- 
liness, for half an hour, and as he 
talked, I could not help but con- 
trast his condition with my own. 
There he was, a man less than 
forty, rich, famous, living in an 
elegant home amid exquisite sur- 
roundings, reposing on a_ stormy 
night in the soft and soothing at- 
mosphere of his library, before a 
leaping fire. And there was I, 
alas! destitute of every consola- 
tion. 

He told me, that doctor, that I 


187 


had only six months to live, and his 
advice to me was to go out and 
hunt and roam in the world and 
make the best of the passing hours. 
“Life is sweet,” said he, proclaim- 
ing a startling philosophy to a dying 
man, “and I am glad you are going, 
not I. And yet, my boy, if we were 
to change places to-night, it wouldn’t 
matter a whole lot to me. The main 
thing is to be a man, and act like 
a man, and you have the oppor- 
tunity.” 

When I returncd from Africa, I 
learned that six months after I left 
the United States that great phy- 
sician had died—insane! 

General Grant opened his antee 
biography with the famous sentence: 
“Man proposes and God disposes.” 
The ways of nature are inscrutable, 
and sometimes, indeed, the race is 
not to the swift. 

In his own words, we did not 
change places in many regards. He 
became insane and died in six 
months, and I became sane and 
lived to marry a woman quite as 
beautiful as the woman whom I 
thought so astoundingly lovely on 
that stormy night. 

And I have lived to say—how 
many times I have thought of his 
words—that nothing matters so very 
much after all, if a man only plays 
a man’s part—lI. J. Swanson. 


523. Death—Significance of 


What is the significance of Death? 
Death in Christ is an accident in 
immortality. The great Unity of 
Life lasts on. Only, like the Sicilian 
rivers of Grecian poetry, Life’s 
stream had flowed here in rugged 
channels and under cloudy skies, 
then it had disappeared for a time 
into the chambers of darkness, only 
to reappear in fairer regions and by 
the sunny sea. The immortal life 
knows no break in its continuity, 
only here it is a life sin-stained, 
sorrow-laden; there sin is gone and 
sorrow ended, when “in Christ” the 


188 


living spirit passes the gates of the 
grave—W. J. Knox Little. 


524. Death Triumphant 


Dr. Simpson on his death-bed told 
a friend that he awaited his great 
change with the contented con- 
fidence of a little child. As another 
friend said to him that he might, as 
John at the last supper, lean his 
head on the breast of Christ, the 
doctor made answer, “I fear I can- 
not do that, but I think I have 
grasped hold of the hem of His 
garment.”—Dr. Koenig’s Life of Dr. 
Simpson. 


525. Death—Triumph in 

About the year 125 A. D. a Greek 
by the name of Aristeides was 
writing to one of his friends about 
the new religion, Christianity. He 
was trying to explain the reasons 
for its extraordinary success. Here 
is a sentence from one of his letters: 

“If any righteous man among the 
Christians passes from this world, 
they rejoice and offer thanks to 
God, and they escort his body with 
songs and thanksgiving as if he 
were setting out from one place to 
another nearby.” 

What a description of Christian 
faith in immortality,—that a man 
sets out from one place to another 
nearby! Is it any wonder that a 
religion like that swept paganism? 
Those who are gone before are not 
lost, not separated from us _ per- 
tmanently: they are only waiting in 
another place nearby for us to join 
them again —J. G. Gilkey. 


526. God's Record Book 


In England there recently died a 
certain Mrs. Mary Ann Pemberton, 
leaving a comfortable estate. Some- 
where in her past life there had 
been grim tragedy, for in her will 
she made these provisions: 

She desired that her name shall 
not appear on any memorial tablet in 
any church. No music or singing 


DEATH 


shall be heard at her funeral, which 
is to be conducted like a cottager’s 
funeral, and no leaves or flowers 
shall be placed in her grave or in the 
form of wreaths and crosses on her 
grave. Her tombstone, which shall 
not cost more than $15.00, shall bear 
the inscription ‘“M. A. P.” and the 
date of her death and her age, and 
the text “God be merciful to me, a 
sinner,’ “My sole wish being that 
my name be utterly forgotten.” 


527. Life Minus Afterglow 

A match company advertises one 
brand of matche as having “no 
afterglow,” and, therefore, not so 
liable to cause fire when thrown 
aside after lighting. That suggests, 
by contrast, the fact that there is 
no afterglow in the lives of some 
Christians whom the minister is 
called upon to bury. They were 
honest and decent enough as citi- 
zens, and there were some other 
admirable traits in their lives, but 
there was no warm, helpful, cheer- 
ing “afterglow.” Nobody ever be- 
came “hungry” to know of Jesus 
Christ with his comforting, thrill- 
ing companionship because of their 
passionate witness for him. They 
had missed something. They had 
come to Kadesh-Barnea and turned 
back into the drab monotony of 


“wilderness life.’ They had not 
gone on. Wilderness life has no 
“afterglow.” What is admirable for 


matches is tragedy for character. Is 
there a glow in your life for him 
now? Then there will be an after- 
glow. 


528. Prepared for Death 


It is said of the Rev. Mr. Kidd, 
a Scotch minister of some prom- 
inence, that he was very eccentric, 
and had his own way of doing 
things. “Just as the year was open- 
ing,” says one of his parishioners, “I 
was very busy in my shop, when, 
right in the midst of my work, in 
stepped the Doctor, without knock- 


DECISION 


ing or a word of announcement. 
‘Did you expect me?’ was his abrupt 
inquiry, without even waiting for a 


salutation. ‘No, sir,’ was my reply, 
I did not. ‘What if I had been 
Death?’ he asked, in a _ solemn, 


earnest tone; and out he stepped, as 
suddenly as he had come, and was 
gone almost before I knew it!” 


529. Saved From Death 


A detachment of the American 
army had just entered a_ small 
French village from which the 
enemy had fled. In an ecstasy of joy 
the few remaining inhabitants 
flocked out to greet them, singing, 
dancing, and shedding tears of glad- 
ness as they approached. “Well, I’m 
glad to help save these people,” ex- 
claimed a young officer thought- 
lessly, “but I don’t see why they 
have to get so crazy over it.” “Ah, 
M’sieur,” an old lady who had over- 
heard him replied, “that’s because 
you don’t know what you’ve saved 
us from!’”—Exchange. 


530. There Is No Death 


There is no death! The stars go 
down 
To rise upon some fairer shore; 
And bright in Heaven’s jewelled 
crown 
They shine forever more. 


There is no death! The dust we 
tread 
Shall change beneath the summer 
showers 


To golden grain, or mellow fruit, 
Or rainbow-tinted flowers. 


The granite rocks disorganize 
To feed the hungry moss they 
bear ; 
The forest leaves drink daily life 
From out the viewless air. 


There is no death! An angel form 
Walks o’er the earth with silent 
tread ; 
He bears our best loved things away, 
And then we call them “dead.” 


189 


He leaves our hearts all desolate, 
He plucks our fairest, sweetest 
flowers; 
Transplanted into bliss, they now 
Adorn immortal bowers. 


Born into that undying life, 
They leave us but to come again; 
With joy we welcome them—the 
same, 
Except in sin and pain. 


And ever near us, though unseen, 
The dear immortal spirits tread; 
For all the boundless universe 
Is life—there are no dead. 
—E, Bulwer-Lytton. 


DECISION 


531. Behold Now 


In the Polar regions the summer 
season causes much joy and bright- 
ness. Every hour is utilised, as they 
well know that in a few weeks the 
opportunity will be gone, and the 
severity of a long winter will again 
set in. They act as those who be- 
lieve that the time is short. Such 
is “the accepted time, the day of 
salvation.” A brief but precious 
season. Yet many heed not this, 
their only chance of a harvest of 
eternal bliss before the long winter 
of death and eternal gloom sets in. 
“Arise, shine, for thy light is come” 
(Isa. 60:1).—James Smith. 


532. Christ—Coming to 


I have read of an artist who 
wanted to paint a picture of the 
Prodigal Son. He searched through 
the madhouses, and the poorhouses, 
and the prisons, to find a man 
wretched enough to represent the 
prodigal, but he could not find one. 
One day he was walking down the 
streets and met a man who he 
thought would do. He told the poor 
beggar he would pay him well if 
he came to his room and sat for his 
portrait. The beggar agreed, and 


190 


the day was appointed for him to 
come. The day came, and a man 
put in his appearance at the artist’s 
room. 
with me,” he said, when he was 
shown into the studio. The artist 
looked at him, “I never saw you 
before,” he said; “you cannot have 
an appointment with me.” “Yes,” 
he said, “I agreed to meet you to- 
day at ten o’clock.” “You must be 
mistaken; it must have been some 
other artist; I was to see a beggar 
here at this hour.” “Well,” says 
the beggar, “I am he” “You?” 
“Yes.” “Why, what have you been 
doing?” “Well, I thought I would 
dress myself up a bit before I got 
painted.” “Then,” said the artist, 
“I do not want you; I wanted you 
as you were; now, you are no use 
to me.” That is the way Christ 
wants every poor sinner, just as he 
is— Moody. 


533. Crisis Hour 


A small vessel was nearing the 
Steep Holmes, in the Bristol Chan- 
nel. The captain stood on the 
deck, his watch in his hand, his eye 
fixed on it. A terrible tempest had 
driven them onward. No one dared 
to ask, “Is there hope?” Every 
moment they were hurried nearer 
to the sullen rock which knew no 
mercy, and on which many ill-fated 
vessels had foundered. Still the 
captain stood motionless, speechless, 
his watch in his hand. “We are 
lost!” was the conviction of many 
around him. Suddenly his eye 
glanced across the sea; he stood 
erect; another moment and he cried, 
“Thank God! we are saved—the 
tide has turned; in one minute more 
we should have been on the rocks!” 


534. Crisis Times 

Professor Amos R. Wells uses 
this telling illustration: “Sometimes 
a mountain avalanche is so delicately 
poised that the vibration of a voice 
will bring it down. Many an 


“You made an appointment. 


DECISION 


avalanche of sorrow has_ been 
brought down by a hasty word.” 
Carelessness in word and action 
may result in the shipwreck not only 
of one but of many lives. 


535. Decision—Early 


My father was the senior elder in 
our church for many years. When 
I was a boy eleven years of age 
we had an evangelist to hold a 
series of meetings. One night he 
asked every Christian to come for- 
ward and also asked those who de- 
sired to confess Christ to come with 
them. My father, of course, went 
up, and, as I felt the call of God, I 
followed after him. Just as he 
reached the front he turned around, 
and, seeing me, said, “Johnnie, you 
go back, you are too young.” I 
obeyed him, as I had been taught 
to do, and at thirty-three I came 
again, but I did not know what I 
was coming for as clearly at thirty- 
three as I did at eleven. And the 
church lost twenty-two years of 
service while I lost twenty-two years 
of growth because my own father, 
an officer in the church, said, “Go 
back.”—A Ruling Elder. 


536. Decision—Firm 


A slender young fellow was 
standing with others at one of the 
corner drug-stores where, in bad 
weather, people waited for a car. 
They were bantering him and ply- 
ing him with questions, but presently 
the young man’s voice rang out, as 
he broke his determined silence and 
turned on the two who stood twirl- 
ing cigarettes in their fingers. 

“Why will I not? Because I dare 
not!” he said clearly and decisively. 
Then, with an accent of indignation, 
he added in a lower voice, “Because 
it is an outrage on my sense of 
right !” 

The next moment he was gone, 
having hailed his car and boarded 
it; but his manly speech seemed to 


DECISION 


echo a moment in the hush he left 
behind him.—The Pilgrim Teacher. 


537. Decision—Instant 


In a railroad wreck on the Wa- 
bash road at Missouri City, Mo., 
in which several people were killed, 
a still more appalling disaster was 
narrowly averted. The passenger 
train had broken through a trestle, 
and a freight train, which was fol- 
lowing only ten minutes, must be 
flagged, or scores of passengers, 
unable to escape in time, would be 
crushed to death. Those who were 
free rushed back, and were able to 
flag the freight train within a few 
feet of the deadly gorge; but those 
few feet meant safety. There is 
an illustration that ought to quicken 
the energy of every Christian 
worker. Multitudes about us are 
hastening to disaster. Our only 
possibility of saving them is to 
catch their attention and arouse 
their consciences before it is too 
late. It is now or never with many 
a man of our acquaintance.—An- 
ecdotes and Morals. 


538. Decision—Intelligent 


The largest problem before 
leaders of the world’s life to-day is 
to decide what they want to do, 
what they would do if they had 
their way. A touring car was 
waiting at a fork in the road when 
a farmer came by. The travelers 
asked which road they should take. 
“Where do you want to go?” the 
farmer asked. They said they did 
not know exactly. “Well, then, it 
doesn’t matter,” and the busy man 
drove on. If reformers or construc- 
tors do not know what they want 
to get done, it does not matter what 
course they adopt—The Continent. 


539. Decision—Moment of 


Pilate came at last to what may 
be strictly described as a crisis. It 
takes him up to the supreme mo- 
ment, and leaves him nothing but in- 


191 


evitable action to follow. The 
critics of art tell us that this is 
precisely the conjecture which a 
great statue should represent. You 
see the man in motionless marble; 
and to represent him in motion 
would be in error. You see him 
poised the instant before motion, his 
body bent forward, his muscles set, 
his hand holding the discus, thrown 
back to the exact position it ought 
to occupy if the tremendous effort 
is not to fail of its effect; and 
exactly at that moment of supreme 
preparation, the instant before the 
sweeping rush of the arm is to be- 
gin, the sculptor leaves him—leaves 
him for so many thousands of years 
as the marble shall last. You see 
the father and the sons writhing in 
agony, their limbs constricted by the 
monsters which the sea has given to 
wreck the vengeance of a goddess; 
you see them at the moment when 
the father, having tried and striven 
as a man may in silence, has at last 
opened his mouth for one despair- 
ing cry, and there the moment be- 
fore the cry is uttered, there he is 
left. In each case the imagination 
is driven to give the motion, to hear 
the cry. Just at such a moment as 
that of my text, Pilate washes his 
hands of the blood of this innocent 
person, the Jews take the blood on 
themselves and on their children. 
It is the supreme moment of the 
preparation; after it, all follows of 
necessity.—Canon G. F. Browne. 


540. Decision—Possible 


We make our great decisions and 
pass from darkness to light, and 
from life to death, in a moment. 
Browning in “The Ring and the 
Book” describes this fact in his 
own dramatic way. He tells us that 
for the main criminal of that story, 
Guido, he see no chance. He was 
a man so corrupt in heart, so coarse 
and callous in passion, that there 
seemed no ‘possibility of mercy for 
his soul. But the poet describes a 


192 


night when he stood above Naples, 
and the heavens were covered with 
a pall of cloud. The hills and the 
sea and the city itself were hidden 
from his straining eyes by the inky 
blackness. Suddenly a broad flash 
of lightning illumined the heavens, 
and there stood out the distant hills, 
the white foam of the waves, and 
the streets and spires of the city 
The poet adds: 


So may the truth be flashed out by 


one blow, 
And Guido see—one instant—and 

be saved. 
That is the truth in salvation 


which we forget. It is the truth 
which makes the story of the rich 
young ruler so tragical. His inter- 
view with Christ did not last five 
minutes. For those five minutes 
he was face to face with the strait 
gate. He came to his decision, and 
refused to call—in a moment. He 
made the plunge and disappeared, 
and we never hear of him again. In 
the same way, the penitent thief, 
after a life stained with crime, and 
while he was paying its just penalty, 
strained out toward Christ with the 
cry, “Lord, remember me _ when 
Thou comest into Thy kingdom.” It 
was faith born in a moment, and 
the response to it was, “Today shalt 
thou be with Me in paradise.” 


541. Decision—Y outhful 


Griffith John, the celebrated mis- 
sionary to China, was admitted to 
church-membership at the exceed- 
ingly early age of eight. His tes- 
timony is, “Had I not taken that 
step then, I doubt whether I should 
ever have been a missionary, if a 
member of a Christian Church at 
all."—J. Morley Wright. 


542. Delay Dangerous 

A woman, who had not been in 
a church in many a year, heard an 
evangelistic sermon and the Spirit 
of God gripped her heart. Suddenly 


DECISION 


she saw her sins, which were many, 
and cast herself down to pray. A 
Christian lady in the same _ seat 
prayed with her and pointed her to 
Christ, the Saviour. She accepted 
Christ’s sacrifice and left the church 
a redeemed soul. As she was leav- 
ing, she said to her new found 
Christian friend: “Oh, that I had 
a Bible!” The lady gave her her 
own, which bore her name. 

According to her custom, this 
Christian lady went the rounds of 
the hospitals next day. A nurse said 
to her: “We had a sorrowful case 
today. A young woman was run 
over by an omnibus and is now dead. 
The peculiar thing about it is, she 
had a Bible with your name in it.” 
The lady asked: “Did she say any- 
thing before she died?” “Yes, when 
we told her her case was hopeless, 
she said: ‘Thank God that this did 
not happen yesterday. I am now re- 
deemed and going home to Jesus!” 

Surely, better in the twelfth hour 
than not at all, but why not now? 
Christian friends, the service of 
Christ gives great satisfaction work 
while it is day! : 


543. Delay Fatal 


A few years ago I went over the 
battlefield of Waterloo with an old 
Walloon guide. As we stood by the 
doorway of the stone chateau which 
was the center of the battle, the 
guide pointed out the wall which 
sheltered the old Guard of Napoleon, 
and the ditch where Wellington’s 
musketeers were hid, and the well 
which was filled with bodies of the 
dead and from which the cries of 
the wounded were heard on that 
fateful night. On my asking for 
the direction in which Blucher’s 
troops had come to the relief of the 
allies, the guide pointed to a road 
running over the crest of a distant 
hill and cried, “There’s where he 
came! At four o’clock in the after- 
noon!” Then turning to the op- 
posite hills, he added, “And there’s 


DECISION 


where Jerome should have planted 
his great guns at half-past three!” 
Then, with curses on the head of 
Prince Jerome, he wailed, “Too 
late! Too late! And France was 
lost!” This is the requiem of lost 
fame, lost fortune, lost life, through 
all the ages. Too late! Too late— 
D. J. Burrell. 


544. Future—Gambling on 


In Silas Marner, George Eliot 
pictures the old miser on the night 
he was robbed, leaving his house 
unlocked while he stepped out for 
a short errand to the store. He 
reasoned that he had never been 
robbed and that it was altogether 
unlikely that he would be now. She 
adds: “A man will tell you that 
he has worked in a mine for forty 
years unhurt by an accident as a 
reason why he should apprehend no 
danger, though the roof is beginning 
to sink.” 

That kind of a process goes on in 
a man’s mind until he is often prac- 
tically immune from any appeal 
whatever. He has never seen any 
danger and he guesses there is none 
now nor will be. That man is 
always the hardest to reach, and the 
older he gets the harder. Now is 
the day of salvation. And that is 
why so few older people are saved. 


545. Lost—Almost 

Years ago where for centuries the 
sea had pounded the beetling crags 
and chiseled many a chamber within 
their granite sides, it was the custom 
of the natives to hunt for birds’ 
eggs. Two men generally went to- 
gether with their baskets. They 
carried with them a strong rope, 
the upper end of which would be 
fastened securely to a ledge or 
primitive windlass. Then one would 
lower himself with his basket, while. 
the other remained to help hoist 
him to the top. When he reached 
the spot selected, he swung himself 
in on a projecting platform and 


193 
fastened the end of the rope 
preparatory to filling his basket. 


Once, as one turned to commence 
his task, to his horror he discovered 
the rope had become loose and was 
swinging back and forth over the 
sea and the pitiless rocks far be- 
low. One swing more and the rope 
would be beyond his reach. It took 
but a second for him to drop his 
basket and jump for the rope, which 
he seized, and gave the signal to 
be drawn up, where he arrived in 
a profuse perspiration and fainted 
in the arms of his friend—saved at 
the last swing of the rope—Rod 
and Staff. 


546. Lost—Almost but 


A child who had wandered from a 
mountain road, in the summer 1900, 
lost his life among “the Brecon 
Beacons.” Had he walked only a 
few yards farther from the spot 
where his body at last was found, 
he would have seen his home in the 
valley just below the mountain, and 
have been easily guided to the path- 
way descending to it. He paused in 
his weariness at a point where 
nothing met his eye but the bare 
hills around. In that pathetic in- 
cident is there not a parable of much 
spiritual loss? The gift that might 
have been cultivated, the blessing 
that might have been won, the grace 
by which weakness might have been 
transformed into strength, the temp- 
tation that might have been subdued, 
the work that might have been so 
useful in the Church’s cause, lost at 
a point where only one more effort 
was needed to secure it. Midway 
between “the spirit,” with its upward 
aspirations, and “the flesh’ in our 
fallen state, with its downward ten- 
dencies, there lies “the soul,’ the 
scene of momentous. decisions 
whether to fall under “the mind of 
the flesh,” which is death, or under 
“the mind of the spirit,” empowered 
by the Divine Spirit, which is “life 
and peace.” In the years of our 


194 


conflict, the Lord’s solemn charge 
to “watch and pray” is a summons 
to self-discipline and importunity in 
prayer, but the charge may be linked 
with the gracious promise by which 
He crowns endurance with victory: 
“In your patience ye shall win your 
souls.”—A. J. Worlledge. 


547. Put Of Town 


“Did you ever go to Put Off Town, 

Where the houses are old and 
tumble down 

And everything tarries and every- 
thing drags 

With dirty streets and people in 
rags? 


“On the street of Slow lives old man 
Wait 

And his two little boys, named 
Linger and Late, 

With uncleaned hands and tousled 


hair, 

And a naughty little sister named 
Don’t Care. 

“Grandmother Growl lives in this 
town, 

With her .two- granddaughters, 


called Fret and Frown; 
And old man Lazy lives alone 
Around the corner on street Post- 
pone. 


“Did you ever go to Put Off Town 

To play with the little girls, Fret 
and Frown? 

Or go to the home of old man 
Wait, 

And whistle for his boys to come 
to the gate? 


“To play all day on Tarry Street, 

Leaving your errands for other 
feet, 

To stop or shirk or linger or frown 

Is the nearest way to this old 
town.” 


§48. Procrastination—Fatal 

“A Christian man, whose name I 
have just now forgotten, while en- 
route to Houston, Texas, finding that 


DECISION 


he had 45 minutes between trains, 
called at the home of a friend and 
found him seriously ill. In a little 
while he was talking with the sick 
friend, who was not a Christian, 
about the needs of his soul and 
urging him to immediately accept 
Christ as his Saviour. 

“Tt have only a few minutes to 
wait and then I must catch my train. 
Won’t you decide before I go?” he 
pleaded. 

“No,” replied the sick man. “Stop 
and see me on your way north and 
Pll let you know.” 

“But you are a very sick man. 
Take my Saviour before I leave.” 

“Oh, [ll get well and be around 
in a few days,” answered the pro- 
crastinator. 

“No, no! Decide now. I plead 
with you not to delay.” But he 
could not prevail upon his friend 
though he remained so long that he 
was compelled to go to the station 
on a run in order to catch his train. 

On reaching Houston the Chris- 
tian man received this telegram: 
“Five minutes after you left your 
friend died.” 

The poor, foolish soul was that 
near the brink, and still saying “To- 
morrow.” 


549. Rejecting the Great 
Physician 
What would you think if there 
were to be an insurrection in a 
hospital, and sick man should con- 
spire with sick man, and on a cer- 
tain day they should rise up and 
reject the doctors and nurses? 
There they would be—sickness and 
disease within, and all the help with- 
out! Yet what is a hospital com- 
pared to this fever-ridden world, 
which goes swinging in pain and 
anguish through the centuries, where 
men say, “We have got rid of the 
Atonement, and we are rid of the 
Bible’? Yes, and you have rid 
yourselves of salvation.—Beecher. 


DECISION 


550. Self-Control 

When, in the Pilgrim’s Progress, 
Christian was passing along, and 
being shown the various sights 
which make up human experience, 
he came to a man who was in a 
cage biting his nails with remorse. 
He asked who he was. Who art 
thou, poor mortal, he said, who art 
thou, caged in this cage for ever? 
And he answered back, I am a man 
who in my youth threw the reins 
on the neck of my passions, and 
therefore am I in this cage. He 
found that so-called freedom was 
the way to slavery. Get upon the 
steed, put the bit in his mouth, hold 
the strong reins in strong hands 
of a man instead of being dragged 
by the reins along the ground 
through the mire, ride upon the 
horse and use him as a servant and 
not a master, and you stand fast 
in the liberty with which Christ has 
made you free—A. F. Winnington 
Ingram. 


551. Speech—Frank 


The famous Scottish professor, 
John Stuart Blackie, was noted for 
his hot temper and vehement candor, 
as well as for his profound scholar- 
ship. “The Independent” thus re- 
calls a familiar incident in his life: 

At the opening of a college term, 
the boys observed that he was un- 
usually irritable and harsh. The 
applicants for admission ranged 
themselves for examination in a line 
below his desk. 

“Show your papers,” he ordered. 

One lad held his paper up awk- 
wardly in his left hand. 

“Hold it up properly, sir, in your 
right hand!” commanded the master, 

The new pupil muttered some- 
thing, but kept his left hand raised. 

“The right hand, ye loon!” thun- 
dered the professor. 

The boy, growing very pale, lifted 
his right arm. It was a_ burned 
stump; the hand was gone. 


195 


The boys burst into indignant 
hisses; but the professor had leaped 
down from the platform, and had 
thrown his arm about the boy’s 
shoulder. 

“Eh, laddie, forgive me!’ he 
cried, breaking into broad Scotch, 
as he always did when greatly ex- 


cited. “I didna ken! But,” turn- 
ing to the class with swimming 
eyes, “I thank - God hes fas 


given me gentlemen to teach—who 
can call me to account when I go 
astray.” 

“After that day,” wrote one of 
the boys, years afterward, “every 
man there was his firm friend and 


liegeman. He had won us all by 
that one frank  speech.”—Petér 
Zaleski. 

552. Time—The Accepted 


There trudged along a Scotch 
highway years ago a little, old- 
fashioned mother. By her side was 
her boy. The boy was going out 
into the world. At last the mother 
stopped. She could go no farther. 


“Robert,” she said, “promise me 
something?” “What?” asked the 
boy. “Promise me_ something?” 


said the mother again. The boy was 
as Scotch as his mother, and he 
said: “You will have to tell me be- 
fore I will promise.” She said: 
“Robert, it is something you can 
easily do. Promise your mother?” 
He looked into her face and said: 
“Very well, mother, I will do any- 
thing you wish.” She clasped her 
hands behind his head and pulled 
his face down close to hers, and 
said: “Robert, you are going out 
into a wicked world. Begin every 
day with God. Close every day 
with God.” Then she kissed him, 
and Robert Moffat says that that 
kiss made him a missionary. And 
Joseph Parker says that when 
Robert Moffat was added to the 
Kingdom of God, a whole con- 
tinent was added with him. There 
are critical times in the history of 


196 


souls. “Now is the accepted time; 
now is the day of salvation.”—J. W. 
Chapman. 


553. Ioo Late 


In Dundee, Scotland, a wild and 
reckless boy broke his mother’s 
heart. He went from one depth of 
sin and shame to another, and then 
fled from home. Blindly drunk, he 
made his way to a ship, and when 
he awoke in the morning, he was 
at sea on the way to Australia. 
They would not let him off. After 
a while he reached the gold fields. 
There he had common miner’s luck, 
until one day he struck a pocket of 
gold. One nugget after another 
came up out of that pocket. In the 
morning he went out poor, and by 
high noon he stood with gold heaped 
about his feet. Of whom do you 
think he thought first, standing there 
with the gold at his feet? “Mother,” 
he said, “I will go back to old Dun- 
dee and buy you the finest house in 
the city. I will get you the best 
car that runs.” Soon he was on 
the sea, going back to Dundee. Ar- 
rived in the old town, he was soon 
standing in front of the little house. 
There was no light in the window, 
no smoke coming out of the 
chimney. When he rapped at the 
door, there was no answer. Then 
he went to a neighbor’s house. They 
said to him: “Jack, stay with us 
until morning and we will tell you.” 
When morning came they took him 
out to the churchyard. The place is 
not far from Mr. Carnegie’s castle. 
Past this grave and that they went, 
until at length they came to a new 
grave. It was his mother’s grave. 
On the front board he read his 
mother’s name, and the date of her 
death. He got down on his knees 
and buried his face in his hands and 
sobbed as only a big man can sob. 
“Mother, mother,” he cried, “I did 
love you. I did love you.” The 
one who stood by his side later be- 
came his wife. Very gently she said 


DECISION 


to him: “Jack, you told her too 
late.” Yes, it was too late. 

Some day you expect to be saved. 
You want to be with your family, 
with your mother, in the skies. You 
would like to see your sweet child 
again who has gone on before. 


“And if you still this call refuse, 
And all His wondrous love abuse; 
Soon will he sadly from you turn, 
Your bitter cry for pardon spurn. 
Too late, too late, will be the cry, 
Jesus of Nazareth has passed by.” 
J. Wilbur Chapman. 


554. Warning—Unheeded 


An action for damages was de- 
cided by the Court of Appeals 
against the plaintiff in the following 
case. A man walking down Fourth 
Ave., New York, stopped on a 
temporary bridge to look at work 
being done in the subway. A work- 
man told him to move on, as he was 
liable to be hurt. He refused to do 
so, claiming he had a right to be 
on a public street. A few moments 
later he was struck on the head by 
a piece of iron that was cut from a 
pipe and was severely hurt. So he 
sued for damages. 

The decision of the final court 
was that he was perfectly justified 
in staying where he was hurt after 
being warned. However, the warn- 
ing he had received, and had not 
heeded, precluded him from getting 
damages for his injuries. The 
presumption was that he accepted 
the risk of remaining after the 
danger had been pointed out to him. 
The contractor had no right to re- 
move him by force, and had fully 
done his duty when he had told 
him of the peril he was in. 

The same principle operates in 
spiritual matters. The right of free 
will is respected, and it is open to 
all to reject the warnings and in- 
vitations of the gospel. It is a 
man’s own soul that is involved, and 


EXAMPLES 


if he allows it to go to destruction 
he alone must bear the penalty. 


555. Work While It Is Day 


During the period of rainy 
weather, a London city missionary 
became discouraged through in- 
clemency of the weather and the 
hard-heartedness of the people. One 
evening he wandered through his 
district in a very despondent mood, 
and stepped into a hallway to rest 
and gain shelter from the rain. 
Through an open doorway he saw a 
seamstress at her work by candle- 
light. So busily was she working 
that he had trouble to follow the 
fast flying needle with his eye. She 
stopped a moment to rest, but then, 
casting a look at her candle, she mur- 
mured, “I must hasten, for my 
candle is burning low and I have 
no other,” and busily applied herself 
to her work. The missionary says: 
“These words entered my heart as a 
warning from above. In a moment 
my despondency was gone and I 
said, ‘I, too, must hasten and work 
while it is day; the night comes 
apace when no man can work.’ ” 

Do YOU feel discouraged, brother 
or sister? Work on, your labor is 
not in vain in the Lord! You can- 
not know how long your light will 
shine, so do not hide it even for a 
moment, but let every ray count in 
an effort to dispel the darkness of 
sin! God will take notice and bless 
you for it. 


556. Excuses—Weak 


An ungodly man was once ex- 
horted to become a Christian and his 
defense was that he could not un- 
derstand the Bible. Said he, “I can- 
not learn from reading the Bible 
where the negro came from, that’s 
why I have never become a Chris- 
tian.” He was then asked whether 
it was his custom to attend to the 
most important duties of life first, 
or whether he gave those of less im- 


197 


portance first consideration. He re- 
plied, “I always put the most im- 
portant things first as any intelligent 
man would do.” He was then asked 
which he regarded as the most im- 
portant question—where the negro 
came from or where he was going. 
After some hesitancy he said, “Well, 
where I’m going, of course.” This 
poor fellow was more concerned 
about the origin of the color of 
another man’s skin than the sal- 
vation of his own soul. When I 
see men stumbling over questions 
which have no bearing upon the 
subject of their personal salvation 
I am reminded of the account of a 
civil service examination which an 
old soldier was taking with the view 
of securing a position as clerk in 
the pension department. One ques- 
tion was, “How far is the moon 
from the earth?” His reply was, 
“T do not know how far the moon is 
from the earth, but I know it is 
not near enough to interfere with 
my duties as a clerk in the pension 
department.”—O. A. Newlin. 


EXAMPLES 


557. L£vil Influences 


There are some varieties of trees 
which breathe out poison, and woe 
betide the traveler who is ignorant 
enough to rest beneath their shade! 

London Answers, an English 
paper, tells of a tree on the hill 
slopes of Chile which the natives 
look upon as being possessed of an 
evil spirit, Many cases have oc- 
curred where innocent travelers 
have crept under its branches during 
the heat of the day, and paid for 
its shade with their lives. After 
resting under one of these trees for 
a short time, the hands and face of 
a traveler become swollen, as in a 
case of snake-bite, and the surface 
of the skin is covered with boils. 
Many visitors in the vicinity of Val- 


198 


paraiso have succumbed to the in- 
fluence of this poisonous tree. 


There are some men and women — 


like that tree. Whoever rests in 
their shadow is poisoned by the 
baneful influence of their evil char- 
acters. 


558 Example—Power of 


At the height of the Boxer 
trouble a leading merchant came to 
one of the missionaries with the re- 
quest to be baptised and received 
into the church at once. The mis- 
sionary replied: ‘Would you not 
better wait a little until this storm 
of persecution has blown over? A 
public profession just now might en- 
danger you.” “No,” said he, “I don’t 
want to wait. It is this very thing 
that leads me to desire to be a 
Christian. I have seen your Chris- 
tians go down into the darkness of 
horrible death triumphantly and it 
is the fact that their religion sus- 
tains them that leads me to desire 
to be a Christian now.” It is not 
surprising to learn that a man with 
such convictions and courage as that 
became an intensely earnest and 
faithful Christian. 


559. Example—Reproducing 


When Peter speaks of Jesus 
having left us an “example,” he 
chose for “example” the Greek word 
signifying “the headline of a copy- 
book.” Jesus is for our imitation; 
he is our “copy.” And a test of 
discipleship is the progress we make 
in the reproduction of the copy he 
has set. 


560. Example—Saving 


In 1540 a decree was issued by 
the parliament of Aix, France, 
against the Vaudois. They were to 
be punished by fire and sword un- 
less they became Roman Catholics. 
The ordeal was delayed for a time 
by an appeal to the king, that the 


EXAMPLES 


bishops of Provence might try 
milder means. ‘Three learned theo- 
logians visited the peasants and ar- 
gued with them. They were actually 
converted to the pure faith of the 
gospel instead. To the indignation 
of the papal authorities, they re- 
nounced their dignity and comfort 
to share the poverty and suffering 
of the Vaudois. 


561. Handicaps—Overcome 


One of the most famous travelers 
of modern times was Isabella Bird 
Bishop, who, as a young girl, suf- 
fered from tumors which weakened 
her and would have made her life 
miserable if she had permitted this. 
When she was a little thing her 
constant cry was, “I very tired.” 
But she would not give way to the 
pain, but began the athletic life she 
continued to the end. “Had her 
courage not risen above her mal- 
ady,” her biographer wrote, “she 
might have delivered herself over 
to confirmed ill-health and adorned 
a sofa all her days.” When she 
was twenty-six she was a constant 
sufferer from spinal prostration, and 
could seldom rise before noon, yet 
all her voluminous correspondence 
was done in the morning, as well as 
many of her numerous articles for 
the papers and magazines. “She 
wrote propped up by pillows, a flat 
writing-board upon her knees and 
letters or sheets of manuscript scat- 
tered around her,” her biographer 
said. In the afternoon and evening, 
she would make calls, attend 
committee meetings and be active 
otherwise, and “wherever she went 
she became without effort the most 
absorbing person present, and an 
hour spent with her was worth many 
dinner parties. She was so popular 
because she had the power of forget- 
ting herself entirely in the person 
she was seeking to help. When she 
was thirty-six the spinal trouble had 
progressed to such an extent that 


EXAMPLES 


her head had to be supported by a 
steel net. Yet her biographers told 
how, just at that time, she was tak- 
ing pleasure in life and giving 
pleasure to others. 


562. Light—A Trail of 


Harry Lauder, the famous come- 
dian and entertainer, in a speech 
before the members of the Indian- 
apolis Commercial Club, recently, re- 
lated this experience: “Some years 
ago I was siting at dusk at the 
window of a house in Scotland so 
situated that it commanded the view 
of an entire street of the city. Sud- 
denly there came out from the alley- 
way near the house a man with a 
lighted torch on the end of a stick. 
Going to a lamp-post nearby he 
thrust the torch to the nozzle of the 
gas-jet which immediately burst 
into light. He then went to the 
next post, about the middle of the 
square where the flame from the 
little torch awakened another blaze 
of light. I sat there watching that 
lamp-lighter as he pursued his task, 
and long after his form became in- 
distinguishable, I could trace his 
movements by the lamps he lighted 
and the long trail of light that he 
left behind him. 

“Your business and mine, my 
friends, is to so live that after our 
personalities have become lost in the 
shadows, we shall leave behind us a 
trail of light that will guide the 
steps of those who otherwise may 
walk in darkness.” 


563. Speech—Guarded 

“A perverse tongue falleth into 
mischief.” Professor Amos R. 
Wells says: “Sometimes a mountain 
avalanche is so delicately poised that 
the vibration of a voice will bring 
it down. Many an avalanche of 
sorrow has been brought down by a 
hasty word.” Carelessness in word 
and action may result in the ship- 
wreck not only of one but of many 
lives. 


199 


564. True Greatness 

At the close of the Civil War, 
stockholders of the infamous octo- 
pus of the devil, the Louisiana Lot- 
tery, approached General Robert E. 
Lee and tendered him the presi- 
dency of the company. Lee was 
without position, property, or in- 
come, but regarded this offer as the 
gain of oppression, and on _ the 
ground that he did not understand 
the business and did not care to 
learn it, he modestly declined the 
proposition. They then said, “No 
experience is needed. We know 
how to run the business. We want 
you as president for the influence of 
your name. Remember the salary is 
twenty-five thousand dollars a year.” 
Lee arose and buttoned his old gray 
coat over his manly breast and re- 
plied, “Gentlemen, my home at Ar- 
lington Heights is gone, I am a poor 
man and my people are in need. My 
name and influence are all I have 
left and they are not for sale at any 
price.’ Rather than receive the 
gain of oppression, he taught the 
young men of the south the prin- 
ciples of right living at a salary of 
one thousand dollars a year.—O. A. 
Newlin. 


565. Well-Doing—Steadfast 
Professor James quotes the car- 
penter who was working upon his 
house, and one day made this re- 
mark, “There is very little difference 
between one man and another, but 
that little is important.” We look 
for great differences between one 
life and another, and because we do 
not observe them, we conclude that 
there is no difference worth bother- 
ing about. But there is; and very 
often it is just this slight distine- 
tion between the one who prays his 
prayer and then is done with it, 
and the one who just wants that 
little bit of supplementary prayer. 
The Duke of Wellington, once asked 
why he considered the British 
soldiers better than any others, re- 


200 


plied that it was because they could 
hold out five minutes longer than 
those of other armies. The differ- 
ence was not great, but it was very 
important. Men go looking for the 
key to success; they study the his- 
toric examples of it; they would 
have expected probably to find the 
superiority of the British soldier in 
something he ate, or some knack in 
his drilling, or some little trick he 
had caught about his marching gait; 
but they would not have suspected 
that it all lay in something so com- 
monplace as a mere five minutes 
longer than anybody else. It is not 
the skill and inventiveness to do 
something utterly different from 
anybody else that makes the vic- 
torious life, but that fine little ele- 
ment of doing what everybody else 
dees, but doing it a little longer and 
loving it just a little more. 


566. Fickle Feeling 


A man in a large city desiring to 
visit the zoological park, boarded a 
crowded car marked “Zoo.” He 
paid his fare and began reading his 
paper, feeling like he was going to 
the Zoo. Presently the passengers 
began leaving the car, and when 
there were but two others besides 
himself in the car he began wonder- 
ing if the Zoo was not open. Finally 
the car stopped and seeing the con- 
ductor turning the trolley pole, he 
looked about but saw nothing that 
resembled a park. “Conductor,” said 
he, “doesn’t this car go to the Zoo?” 
“Yes, sir, it certainly does,” replied 
the obliging conductor, “but it is 
just nine miles from here.” He was 
six miles farther from the park than 
when he boarded the car. All the 
while he had been feeling like he 
was going to the Zoo, but was going 
directly from it. He arose, turned 
his seat, again paid his fare, and 
then knew he was going to the Zoo. 
Brother, you cannot feel your way 
to heaven. Do not trust your fickle 
feeling, trust Jesus—O. A. Newlin. 


FAITH 


FAITH 


567. Believing—What Is 


“Mark, you,” said a pious sailor, 
when explaining to a shipmate at the 
wheel, “mark you, it isn’t breaking 
off swearing and the like; it isn’t 
reading the Bible, nor praying, nor 
being good; it is none of these; for 
even if they would answer for the 
time to come, there’s still the old 
score; and how are you to get over 
that? It isn’t anything that you 
have done or can do; it’s taking hold 
of what Jesus did for you; it’s for- 
saking your sins, and expecting the 
pardon and salvation of your soul, 
because Christ let the waves and 
billows go over Him on Calvary. 
This is believing, and believing is 
nothing else.’—New Cyclopedia of 
Anecdotes. 


568. Christ—Trust in 


I remember the first time I came 
down the St. Lawrence; as the Long 
Sault Rapids hove in sight, all the 
passengers were intently looking at 
the rushing, foaming waters in the 
distance. Soon the boat was brought 
to stand and a man taken on board. 
He was an Indian, a man about 
fifty-five, stalwart and strong, and, 
I believe, the only pilot that had 
ever attempted to steer a _ vessel 
through those raging waters. I 
watched him with peculiar interest, 
as he put his hands upon the wheel 
and pointed the boat towards the 
rapids. With hands busily plying 
the wheel at times, and his eyes 
riveted, as it were, upon some object 
before him, he held that great vessel 
steady to its course; and as we were 
flying, with almost the rapidity of 
thought, I beheld, little more than 
an arm’s length from the vessel, 
huge rocks protruding out of the 
water. I thought: “So He bringeth 
us.” My dear friends, I beseech you 
to halt this morning, and put out 
the rope of faith, that Jesus, the 
great Pilot, may come on board. 


FAITH 


You may be nearing agitated waters 
and dangerous rapids, which will 
wreck you for ever without His 
guidance.—Thos. Kelly. 


569. Faith 
It is faith that bridges the land of 
breath 
To the realms of the souls de- 
parted, 
That comforts the living in days of 
death, 
And strengthens the  heavy- 
hearted. 
It is faith in his dreams that keeps 
a man 
Face front to the odds about 
him, 
And he shall conquer who thinks 
he can 
In spite of the throngs who doubt 
him. 


Each must stand in the court of life 
And pass through the hours of 
trial ; 
He shall tested be by the rules of 
strife, 
And tried for his self-denial. 
Time shall bruise his soul with the 
loss of friends, 
And frighten him with disaster, 
But he shall find when the anguish 
ends 
That of all things faith is master. 


So keep your faith in the God 
above, 
And faith in the righteous truth, 
It shall bring you back to the absent 
love, 
And the joys of a vanished youth. 
You shall smile once more when 
your tears are dried, 
Meet trouble and swiftly rout it, 
For faith is the strength of the 
soul inside, 
And lost is the man without it. 
—Edgar A. Guest. 


570. Faith and Freedom 


When that awful storm of hot 
stones, molten lava and death deal- 


201 


ing pumice buried the city of Pom- 
peli, four prisoners, with their feet 
fastened in stocks, were overtaken 
by the flood. Sitting in their dun- 
geon they could hear the dreadful 
roar, telling of the coming of some- 
thing, they knew not what, and they 
could feel the stifling breath of the 
gases which were carrying down to 
death the people of that doomed 
city, a merciful means of stupefac- 
tion, shutting out the more terrible 
effects of the hail of death which 
came in its train. 

Nearer and more near the wave 
of death came, until now it spread 
even to the door of the prisoners’ 
cell. Frightened by the mysterious 
shadow falling like a pall over 
everything, the jailer fled for life, 
deaf to the agonized cries of the 
men he had been set to keep. 

There stood the door of escape, 
now wide open as their keeper had 
left it. And, oh, more fearful thought, 
there just on the very thresh- 
old of the doorway lay the key 
which the jailer had dropped in 
his flight, the key which would un- 
lock the iron stocks which held 
their feet so fast! If only they 
might reach it there might be a 
chance for them to escape, as others 
were trying to do. But beyond their 
utmost reach lay the thing which 
could free them, a mockery to their 
hopes, a jeer flaunting itself in the 
very face of destiny. And so they 
fought and shrieked and tore their 
very flesh in madness until the 
fumes from the distant volcano 
filled the cell, and put an end to it 
all. And there lay the key just be- 
yond their reach! 

How like to that old prison cell of 
Pompeii is sin. Fast in the stocks 
of evil, men are still bound hand 
and foot. Death, darker than that 
which descended over that ancient 
city, casts its pall over us all. We 
see its fateful approach, and look 
about us in our moments of thought- 
fulness for some means of release. 


202 


Are we, too, prisoners condemned 
without relief to sure death? 

Thanks be to Him that has loved 
us with an everlasting love, there 
is a way of escape for us all. 
key is here, and it is not beyond our 
reach. Nay, into our hands he has 
thrust the master-key which will 
open every door the devil may shut 
against us. It is the key of faith in 
Jesus Christ—E. L. Vincent. 


571. Faith and Hope 

What is faith? What is hope? 
Many definitions have been given 
in answer to these questions, but 
few more to the point than those 
given by natives of King William’s 
land. Missionary Hoffmann had re- 
lated the story of Jesus, and one of 
his listeners had asked, “whether he 
had ever seen Jesus.” “No,” said 
he, “but I know postively that he 
lives.” The man went away think- 
ing deeply. After some time he re- 
turned and said: “Am I not right, 
missionary, you have not seen Jesus 
with your eyes, but you have seen 
him with your heart?” This is the 
vision of Faith! 

This same missionary had to send 
his children to Germany for edu- 
cation and a short time afterward 
his wife died. One of the heathen 
said: “How can you bear all that?” 
Mr. Hoffmann answered: “I know 
that I shall see my loved ones again, 
even if they have died.” The native 
was astonished at the reply, but then 
he said: “You Christians are to be 
envied; you can see through the 
horizon.” What a fine definition of 
Christian hope! 


572. Faith and Obedience 


“Hello, captain, whither are you 
bound this trip?” “I can’t say, for 
I’m sailing under sealed orders from 
the government. I may be bound 
for Greenland or the Cape of Good 
Hope; for Alaska or the bay of 
Naples. Like the grand old man 


The © 


FAITH 


of faith, Abraham, I go out, not 
knowing whither I go. But I am 
happy to obey orders. We men who 
are under authority are not to ask 
questions, but to obey, believing that 
to do what we are bidden is best for 
the country we love and even for 
our own personal happiness.” That 
is a fine spirit of loyalty and is not 
exceptional; and it is the proper 
spirit in the spiritual realm. The 
only way for ‘the child of God to 
be happy is “to trust and obey,” not 
to ask questions of our supreme 
Authority. The President of our be- 
loved country while perfectly sincere, 
may make a mistake in judgment 
and send his navy captains to ports 
where it is not wise to go; but the 
Captain of our salvation never 
makes a mistake, and every one of 
his followers is wise who shows the 
same implicit faith that character- 
ized Abraham. He did not know 
where he was going, but, what is 
much better, he knew whose voice 
was bidding him to go. “And 
whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy 
is he.”—George W. Martin. 


573. Faith and Works 


At a boarding school in the 
vicinity of London one of the 
scholars was remarked for repeating 
her lessons well. A _ school-fellow, 
rather idly inclined, said to her one 
day, “How is it that you always say 
your lessons so perfectly?” She re- 
plied, “I always pray that I may say 
my lessons well.” “Do you?” said 
the other. “Well, then, I will pray 
too.” But, alas! the next morning 
she could not even repeat a word 
of her usual task. Very much con- 
founded, she ran to her friend, and 
reproached her as deceitful. “I 
prayed,” said she, “but I could not 
say a single word of my lesson.” 
“Perhaps,” rejoined the other, “you 
took no pains to learn it!” “Learn 
it! learn it!” answerwed the first; “I 
did not learn it at all. I thought 
I had no occasion to learn it when 


FAITH 


”? 


I prayed that I might say it.’— 
New Cyclopaedia of Anecdotes. 


574. Faith—Childlike 


A friend tells of overhearing two 
little girls, playmates, who were 
counting over their pennies together. 
One said, “I have five cents.” The 
other said, “I have ten cents.” 
“No,” said the first little girl, “you 
have just five cents, the same that 
I have;” but the second child quickly 
replied, “My papa said that when 
he came home to-night he would give 
me five cents, and so I have ten 
cents.” The child’s faith gave her 
proof of that which she did not as 
yet see, and she counted it as be- 
ing already hers because it had been 
promised by her father. So are we 
to trust the promises of our 
Heavenly Father, and we, too, can 
count among our possessions the 
thing which he has promised to give 
us. 


575. Faith—Daring 

“Faith saves us; but how?—by 
making us aware of Christ, who 
saves. Faith does not make things 
what they are but shows us them as 
they are in Christ. Certain systems 
lay a pressure upon the subjective 
side greater than the spirit of man 
is at all times able to bear; working 
out all things from the depths of in- 
dividual consciousness as if truths 
were not there at all until they are 
manifestly there for us. Happy for 
us if Christ can look there and find 
his own image reflected, however 
faintly, but we must look at him, at 
the sun in the heavens, not at the 
sun in the brook, its broken and 
ever varying reflection.”—Dora 
Greenwell. 


476. Faith—Daring 

* “During the French and Indian 
war a family of Friends seemed to 
have no fear of the savages. They 
never had any locks or bolts to their 
doors, but to please their neighbors 


203 


they took precaution that seemed to 
them needless—of pulling in at night 
the string that lifted the latch to 
the door. One night the Quaker 
could not sleep, so he lay thinking. 
He had always trusted in God, yet 
he pulled in his latch string; he 
talked the matter over with his 
wife; she was of the same opinion. 
He got up and put the latch-string 
out. That same night, the Indians 
came. They pulled the string and 
went into the house, talked a little 
among themselves and went out and 
shut the door softly. The next day 
the Quakers found that their neigh- 
bors’ homes had all been forcibly 
entered and the occupants killed. 
Years after, a chief who had been 
the leader in the attack on the white 
settlement, said that when he saw 
the latch-string out, the sign of con- 
fidence made him change his mind, 
and he said to those with him, 
‘These people are not our enemies. 
They are not afraid of us. They 
are protected by the Great Spirit.’ ” 
—Youth’s Companion. 


577. Faith—Definition of 


When John Paton, the pioneer 
missionary to the New Hebrides, 
was translating the Scriptures into 
the language of the people of the 
Southern seas, he had great diffi- 
culty in securing a word for faith; 
there seemed to be no equivalent in 
their language. He made it a special 
matter of prayer, and one day one 
of his workers came in from a hard 
day’s work, and leaning back on a 
lounge chair, said, “Oh, I’m so tired, 
I feel I must lean my whole weight 
on this chair.” “Praise God,” said 
Paton, “I’ve got my word, ‘God so 
loved the world that He gave His 
only begotten Son, that whosoever 
leaneth his whole weight on Him 
shall not perish, but have everlasting 
life.’ ”’—Selected. 


578. Faith—Failure of 
Following the retreat of the Brit- 


204 


ish forces from the unsuccessful 
campaign at the Dardanelles, comes 
the news from Vienna that at one 


time, after the great bombardment. 


of March roth, last year, the English 
would have won a most notable and 
decisive victory had the attack been 
renewed on the following day as the 
enemy expected. It is said that the 
principal battery that was capable of 
doing serious injury to the attacking 
forces was practically out of am- 
munition. Owing to the fear of 
further loss, the English, ignorant 
of the enemy’s condition, did not 
follow up their advantage and so 
the opportunity for a great victory 
was lost. 

Many a Christian has missed the 
victory in his life in the same way. 
After years of struggle against 
terrific odds, faith has flagged in 
ignorance of, or unbelief in, the 
unfailing Word of God. To “be 
not weary in well doing” is a con- 
stantly needed exhortation. 


579. Faith—Foundation of 


The most costly little stretch of 
roadbed for a railroad in any 
country is said to be on the Car- 
bondale division of the Erie Rail- 
road, at Ararat Summit. It is only 
a quarter of a mile long, but it cost 
nearly $300,000 to get the track 
ready for the rails. The road was 
completed in 1875, and trains had 
passed over it; but one night a 
quarter of a mile of the track and 
roadbed disappeared entirely and a 
great quagmire occupied the place 
where apparently solid ground had 
been before. Into this pit ten thou- 
sand carloads of gravel and five 
hundred large hemlock trees were 
thrown without any perceptible 
effect. They finally found solid rock 
one hundred and sixty feet below 
the surface, and made a foundation 
by driving four piles, each 4o feet 
long one on top of each other. Kt 
took 1500 trees and a whole hill of 
gravel to make a solid bed. Multi- 


FAITH 


tudes of souls are making the fear- 
ful blunder of building their hopes 
of happiness on the sand or on the 
quagmire. Only the Rock of Ages 
can give permanent foundation. 
Those who build on Christ shall 
never be put to confusion—An- 
ecdotes and Morals. 


580. Faithful to the End 


It would seem from the human 
point of view that failure is always 
possible. The Scriptures, speaking 
from this standpoint, continually 
warns that we may fail. So the 
Apostle bids. us work out our sal- 
vation with fear and trembling, and 
Christ commands to hold fast what 
we have, ere it slip from us and is 
gone. The following, from a recent 
issue of Harper’s Weekly, is an 
effective illustration of the fact: 

At one time the late W. C. Prime, 
while traveling in the East, had ac- 
cumulated a fine assortment of 
Oriental porcelain and pottery, in- 
cluding a great many bowls of won- 
derful workmanship. These, packed 
in straw, journeyed perilously on 
the backs of camels from Damascus 
to Beirut, where they were taken on 
a sailing vessel to Marseilles, thence 
to Havre by wagon, and finally over 
the sea to the United States. Ar- 
rived at the custom house, Mr. 
Prime was summoned to pay the 
duty. The collection was unpacked 
and found to be in perfect con- 
dition. Mr. Prime himself super- 
intended their repacking and had 
them sent to his house. An hour 
after delivery he unpacked his 
treasures, to find nothing but a mass 
of broken pieces. The pottery had 
made the perilous journey from Da- 
mascus to New York only to be 
broken in getting from the custom 
house to his home in Twenty-third 
Street. 


581. Faith in God 


Dr. Schauffler, of New York, says: 
A boy in my Sunday School, 


FAITH 


about fifteen years of age, a son 
of a liquor dealer, came to me and 
said, “Father says that I have got 
to serve the bar now on Sundays. 
What will I do?” I said, “My boy, 
what do you think you ought to 


dor” He said, “I ought not to 
serve.” “Well,” I said, “I have 
nothing to say to you.” Then he 


said, “But father says if I don’t 
serve on the bar on Sundays I can 
pack and get out. What do you 
think I ought to do?” I said, “What 
do you think you ought to do?” He 
said, “I ought to pack and get out.” 
“Very well,’ I said, “I have nothing 
to say to you excepting, when your 
father asks you to serve his bar you 
answer respectfully and say, ‘Father, 
I will do anything for you that is 
not contrary to the laws of God and 
man, but that is contrary to both.’ ” 
I never told the boy I would care 
for him; I simply threw him back 
on his own sense of duty. The next 
Sunday the command came to serve 
the bar, and the suggested reply 
came. The boy’s father angrily said, 
“Then march!” So my boy put up 
all that he had in a red _ hand- 
kerchief, and marched out into the 
streets of New York, with no place 
to sleep and nothing to eat. Now I 
say that was grander faith in God 
than the faith of Abraham when 
God told him to go out into a land 
that he knew not; for Abraham 
went with his flocks and herds, and 
my boy had not a single mutton 
chop or a single place to sleep in. 


582. Faith in Leader 

A story is told of two English 
soldiers in the South African War 
of 1899-1902. They were toiling, 
through the night, over the trackless 
veld, on one of Lord Roberts’ great 
strategic marches. “What is the use 
of it?” said one of the two, wellnigh 
worn out, stumbling on in the twi- 
light over the rough and endless 
plain. “Never mind,” said the other ; 
“come along; Roberts knows.” This 


205 


was precisely Faith. Its foothold 
was firmly set on the man’s ex- 
perience of his chief’s capacity and 
power. From that foothold it 
reached boldly out into the unknown, 
and trusted the chief’s hidden plan 
without a murmur.—H. C. G. 
Moule. 


583. Faith—Justification by 

Some think that to be “justified” 
is simply to be forgiven. But the 
word represents something greater 
still, The justified man, and he is 
every man who has come to God in 
Christ, is not only forgiven, but re- 
garded in God’s sight as though he 
had never sinned. He is a man-> 
against whom God has no charge to 
lay forever. 

I have seen this illustrated by the 
case of the French military officer, 
Captain Dreyfus. You remember 
that he was charged with selling 
French military secrets to the Ger- 
man army and court-martialed for 
it. And because he was a Jew his 
hearing was utterly unfair, and in 
the face of evidence he was ac- 
counted guilty, and banished to 
Devil’s Island. But there were 
friends who kept agitating for a 
second trial, and when this was had, 
again in the face of evidence, he 
was found guilty. Now however, 
the President of France, to save the 
face of the nation, pardoned him. 
Captain Dreyfus is free. He may 
go where he pleases and do what he 
likes. 

But he is not satisfied with par- 
don; nor his friends, nor a large 
portion of France satisfied with it. 
The whole world, indeed, has 
awakened to the unfairness of the 
judgment, and cried out for an- 
other trial that the pardoned man 
might be justified. The third trial 
is granted and at last Captain Drey- 
fus is justified of the crime. He is 
not pardoned now, but something 
different and something better. He is 
now regarded in the eyes of France 


206 


and of the world as one who never 
committed the crime. 

There are only two ways in which 
a man can be justified of a crime. 


One is on the ground of innocence, 


the other on the ground of paying 
the penalty for it. Captain Dreyfus 
was justified on the ground of in- 
nocence, for he was innocent. You 
and I cannot be justified of sin on 
the ground of innocence, for we are 
not innocent, but guilty. But we 
who have accepted Jesus Christ are 
justified on the other ground that 
we have paid the penalty of our sin, 
every particle of it,—not in and of 
ourselves, but in the person of our 
substitute, Who died, “the just for 
the unjust, that he might bring us 
to God.” Glory to God for a sal- 
vation that not only pardons, but 
justifies!—James M. Gray. 


584. Faith—No Fear in 

A little girl was running along, 
and she was asked if she was not 
afraid to go through the cemetery at 
night. “Oh, no,” she said, “I am not 
afraid, for my home is just beyond.” 
This little story Bishop Quayle told 
at the funeral of his colleague, 
Bishop Smith. 


585. Faith—Nothing Impossible 
With 

In a part of the battle of Neuve 
Chapelle where things were more 
than usually muddled, a_ British 
subaltern received the order to lead 
his men out against the trenches op- 
posite. The barbed wire in front of 
them was obviously intact, and to 
do anything of the sort seemed to 
be merely useless suicide. The men, 
realizing the situation, refused, and 
were in fact justified by a counter- 
order a few minutes later. But 
their officer could not understand 
their refusal. Again and again he 
implored them to follow him, and 
at last, with tears in his eyes, sprang 
up himself, saying, “If you will not 
follow me, I’m going alone.’ He 


FAITH 


was hardly over the parapet before 
he fell back, severely wounded. As 
they carried him off on a stretcher, 
he was weeping bitterly—not for his 
own failure or the pain of his 
wound, but because his men had dis- 
graced themselves by refusing the 
impossible. That is the only right 
spirit. For the Christian to-day the 
alternative is“ more unbearable still. 
But, if the faith of a Christian is 
not a delusion the whole way 
through, then for him the im- 
possible does not exist. The Com- 
mander he serves under never blun- 
ders, and there is no such thing as 
going forward alone. On the con- 
trary, the faith which is willing to 
face the impossible is itself the ap- 
pointed mean of achieving it. “This 
is the victory which has overcome 
the world, ever our faith.” ‘“Noth- 
ing shall be impossible unto you.”— 
E. A. Burroughs. 


586. Faith or Presumption 


When means to an end are avail- 
able and we dispense with them, 
relying upon God to do that which 
he has put it within our power to 
do for ourselves, we tempt God and 
are guilty of fanaticism. Dr. Buck; 
ley says: “When Bishop Taylor 
went to Africa, he took with him 
a young man who obstinately re- 
fused to take medicine, claiming 
that God would keep him safe with- 
out the use of such means. When 
he took the fever he still refused 
to take the medicine. The doctor 
who attended him gives the last con- 
versation as follows: ‘Charlie, your 
temperature is 105 and pulse 130; 
normal is 98, and the dividing line 
between life and death is 103. You 
are now dying. It is only a ques- 
tion of time; and if you do not 
take something to break up this 
fever, it will surely kill you.” The 
reply of the misguided youth was: 
‘Well, then, I’ll die, for I won’t take 
any medicine. He died, while 
almost all the party had the African 


FAITH 


fever and recovered by the aid of 
medical skill.” 

That was not faith but presump- 
tion.—S. S. Magazine. 


587. Faith—Reward of 


During the recent war, after a 
German attack, an American boy 
who came back to our lines dis- 
covered that his “pal,” with whom 
he had fought side by side, was 
missing; immediately he asked per- 
mission to go back over the field and 
get him. His officer advised him 
not to go, and said: “If you do it 
will not be worth while. Go at your 
risk, but it will cost you your life.” 
The boy went out, found his friend 
badly hurt, and brought him back 
near our line, but at that point the 
wounded soldier died. The rescuer 
himself was then shot. Dying, he 
crawled back within the line. The 
officer, leaning over him just be- 
fore he died, said: “I told you you 
would lose your life. Was it worth 
while?” “Yes, sir,” replied the dying 
soldier. “He said he knew I would 
come.” The Master said he would 
rise again, and he kept his word. 
The Master says he will come again, 
and he will surely keep that word, 
too. 

“He is risen even as he said.” 
will come again, too. 


He 


588. Faith—Simple 


A man once said to a servant of 
the Lord, “I am such a helpless, 
miserable sinner, there is no hope 
for me. I have prayed, and resolved, 
and tried, and vowed until I am 
sick of my unavailing efforts.” “Do 
you believe that Christ died for our 
sins, and rose again?” was the reply. 
“Of course I do.” “If he were here 
on earth in bodily and visible form, 
what would you do?” “I would go 
to him at once.” “What would you 
say to him?” “I would tell him 
that I am a lost sinner.” “What 
would you ask him?” “I would ask 


207 


him to forgive and save me.” 
“What would he answer?” The man 
was silent. “What would he answer ?” 
The man was silent. “What would 
he answer?” At last the light came 
into his eyes, and a smile of peace 
stole over his face as he whispered, 
“He would answer, ‘I will’” And 
the man went away believing, re- 
joicing with joy unspeakable and full 
of glory; and since that time has 
been working faithfully for the 
Christ who saved him for nothing. 
—Sunday School Times. 


589. Faith—Smouldering 


“The fault is in th: chimney,”: 
said the expert who had come to 
see what was wrong with the kit- 
chen range. “A stove has, of course, 
no draught in itself; it is only its 
connection with the flue that makes 
the fire burn and the smoke ascend, 
and the higher the chimney the 
stronger the draught. At shops and 
foundries, where the fierce fires are 
needed, they run their stacks up to 
a great height. Your stove clogs, 
chokes and smokes because your 
chimney is too low. You must build 
higher.” 

His words reminded us of other 
fires that burn low and choke too 
easily: of love and aspiration so 
often clogged by life’s daily worry 
and, virets. of. faith that’: only 
smoulders instead of flaming bright 
and bearing away the petty troubles 
and worries which seek to smother 
it; of hearts and lives that grow 
cold and dull because their upreach 
is not high enough. The upward 
drawing is not strong enough to 
give vigor to the flame and to whirl 
away the refuse. We must build 
higher. 


590. Faith—Triumph of 

In the Life of Robert and Mary 
Moffat, edited by their son, we are 
reminded that for ten years the 
early mission in Bechuanaland was 


208 


carried on without one ray of en- 
couragement for the faithful 
workers. No convert was made. 


The directors at home, to the great. 


grief of the devoted missionaries, 
began to question the wisdom of 
continuing the mission. A year or 
two longer the darkness reigned. 
A friend from England sent word 
to Mrs. Moffat asking what gift she 
should send out to her. And the 
brave woman wrote back, “Send a 
communion service; it will be sure 
to be needed.” At last the breath 
of the Lord moved on the hearts 
of the Bechuanas. A little group of 
six were united into the first 
Christian church, and that com- 
munion service from England, sin- 
gularly delayed, reached Kuruman 
just one day before the appointed 
time for the first administration of 
the Lord’s Supper—Chronicle of L. 
M. Society. 


591. Faith—Unwavering 


We always need to. strengthen 
each other in our faith and trust in 
God. Every man has his moments 
of+darkness and sorrow, when it is 
a comfort to know how others have 
found peace and joy in believing in 
God. This is what Ella Wheeler 
Wilcox does for us in the following 
song: 


I will not doubt, though all my ships 
at sea 
Come drifting home with broken 
masts and sails: 
I shall believe the hand that never 
fails, 
From seeming evil worketh good 
for me: 
And though I weep because those 
sails are battered, 
Still will I cry, while my best 
hopes be shattered, 
I trust in thee. 


I will not doubt, though all my 
prayers return 

Unanswered from the still, white 
realm above; 


FAITH 


I shall believe it is an all-wise love 
Which has refused those things for 
which I yearn; 
And though at times I cannot keep 
from grieving, 
Yet the pure ardor of my fixed 
believing, 
Undimmed shall burn. 


I will not doubt, though sorrows 
fall like rain, 
troubles swarm 
about a hive; 
I shall believe the heights for 
which [ strive 
Are only reached by anguish and by 
pain; 
And though I groan and tremble 
with my crosses, 
I yet shall see, 
severest losses, 
The greater gain. 


And like bees 


through my 


I will not doubt, well anchored in 
the faith, 
Like some staunch ship, my soul 
braves every gale; 
So strong its courage that it will 
not fail, 
To breast the mighty, unknown sea 
of death; 
Oh, may I cry, when body parts 
with spirit, 
I do not doubt; so 
worlds may hear it. 


listening 


592. Faith—-Unwearied 


“I have been waiting for you for 
ten years!” was the greeting of the 
old man of Mesopotamia to the 
stranded missionary in the moun- 
tains. “Why, how did you know I 
was here?” said the missionary. 
Then the old man told his story. 
“Ten years ago,” he said, “I went 
to a pilgrimage in Arabia; there, in 
the marketplace, I bought this little 
Book from a stranger. As I 
traveled home I read how God sent 
his Son into the world, and how he 
died and rose again. The journey 
did not seem long to me. Then I 
prayed: ‘Oh, God, send me a teacher, 
that I may understand these things.’ 


FAITH 


And for ten years I waited. Now 
the teacher has come . . . teach 
me.” Do you think the little Book 
had been a good missionary?—S. S. 
Chronicle. 


593. Faith—Weak 


I was down in Washington some 
time ago, riding on an electric street 
car. I observed that the motorman 
could easily make that car go slow 
or fast; by a touch of the handle 
in his hand the car would go slower, 
almost stop, and yet not quite stop, 
but just go creeping along like a 
snail. And then he would touch 
that thing again, and the car would 
go almost at the rate of a mile a 
minute. I got curious to know how 
the thing was done. I said to my- 
self, “I can’t see how it is that if 
he touches that wire at all, he does 
not get all the power that there is 
in the power house,’ so I ventured 
to go out on the front platform and 
ask him. “Would you mind a 
stranger asking you a question about 
this machiner”’ I asked. “No, 
certainly not,” he answered; “what 
is ite How is it that you, can 
go slow or fast just by touching 
this instrument you hold in your 
hand?” “Why,” he said, “I squeeze 
this handle, and when I want to go 
slow, I open the mouth that grips 
the trolley, and it just touches it. 
When I want to go fast, it turns and 
grips the trolley and gets all the 
power in the power house. We fel- 
lows call it ‘skinning the wire.” 
I said, “Yes, good morning.” I have 
two thousand people, members of 
my church, that are just “skinning 
the wire;” never have done anything 
but just “skin the wire.’ And you 
know that just about nine-tenths of 
our churches—I say this with in- 
tense sadness in my heart—are just 
“skinning the wire.” But there is 
the power house; all the power of 
heaven is there at our disposal if 
we will only just grip the wire with 
the trolley of faith. The trouble 


209 


is that our faith is so weak that it 
just “skins the wire.” God help us 
to have faith enough to lay hold of 
the handle of his power and let 
come down all the old-time power, 
the power our fathers had, the 
power the apostle had, that once 
again we may show to the world 
the power of God! 


594. Faith—Little 


A church of which I was at one 
time pastor was heavily in debt, and 
I made it a subject of much prayer. 
One day a stranger called on me in 
my study, and said, “Mr. McNeill, I 
understand you have a debt on your 
church that you are anxious to pay 
off. I have heard a great deal about 
your work, and I want to help.” 
Then, laying a blank check on my 
desk, he said, “Fill in the amount 
you require, and I will return later 
and sign it,’ and he was gone. I 
sat there looking at that blank check. 
Surely, said I, he doesn’t realize that 
our debt runs into thousands of 
pounds. He would never give that 
much. But he told me to make it 
out for the full amount. No, I'll 
just put down half. I am afraid he 
will not sign even that much. After 
a little the stranger returned, asked 
for the check, and with scarcely a 
glance signed it, and left without 
another word. I looked at the 
signature. It was that of a well- 
known philanthropist. When I re- 
alized that he meant what he said, 
and I could easily have paid the 
whole debt, I exclaimed, “O man 
of little faith, I will never doubt 
again.”—John McNeill. 


595. Faith Without Feeling 


The difficulty with the average 
adult is that he cannot be satisfied 
without what he calls feeling, some- 
thing different from faith. But a 
very simple illustration may serve 
at once to show how unnecessary 
such feeling is, and how really dis- 
honoring to God it is, to say nothing 


210 


even of its harmfulness to our own 
peace, 

General McClellan wrote his wife 
that 
as Major-General of the army. 
“But,” said he, “I do not feel any 
different than I did yesterday. In- 
deed, I have not yet donned my 
new uniform. I am sure that I am 
in command of the army, however, 
for the President’s order to that 
effect is now before me.” Would 
the General have _ suffered dis- 
obedience to his command or dis- 
honor to his position for the lack of 
this feeling? Were not the Presi- 
dent’s orders sufficient for him to 
act the part? How foolish it would 
have been for him to wait for any- 
thing further, and how disrespect- 
ful to his superior! This is not to 
say that the conviction, or the feel- 
ing, of his being the commanding 
officer may not have grown upon 
him as he did act the part from day 
to day, but was not the fact as true 
on the first day of office as the 
last? 

It is just so with the man who is 
justified by faith. He is at peace 
with God in that moment, and the 
peace of God follows in due time. 
The first represents his state or 
position before God, the second the 
experience or realization of it. 
Whether the second ever becomes 
his or whether it does not, the truth 
of the first-named fact is not 
affected. Let us praise God for this, 
and not dishonor His Word by 
doubting it—James M. Gray. 


596. Faith—Working by 


In modern warfare practically all 
the firing is done at invisible targets. 
The gunners receive the range from 
the proper officer and fire their 
pieces, the hits being recorded by a 
lieutenant who may be stationed a 
mile or so distant. The gunner be- 
lieves he is doing a task that is 
worth while though he cannot wit- 
ness, for the time being, at least, the 


he had been commissioned — 


FAITH 


results. He is compelled to place 
complete faith in the ability of his 
superior officers. One of the gun- 
ners in Europe thus expressed him- 
self, “Yes, it’s mighty difficult for 
us chaps down here in the pits to 
keep on firing and never see the 
enemy, but then we’re content when 
we hear we've got their range, and 
the chaps who are firing at us are 
‘doing business in another world.’ ” 
God, in his Word, has assured the 
Christian that his message should 
not fail. Let us keep up the “firing” 
until we see our unsaved friends “do- 
ing business in another world’”—the 
world of the Spirit-filled life. 


597. Justification and 
Sanctification 


A prisoner may be dismissed from 
the bar, acquitted of the charge, or 
he may be convicted but pardoned; 
but he may go with all the principles 
of wickedness as strong as ever 
within him. His _ condition is 
changed, but not his character. But 
it is never so in God’s dealings with 
men. In every case where there is 
justification, sanctification accom- 
panies it—Wardlaw. 


598. Patience—Perfect Work of 


Some years ago, in a manufac- 
turing town in England, a young 
lady applied to the superintendent of 
a Sunday-school for a class. He 
told her he had no vacant classes, 
but that if she liked to go out and 
hunt up a class of boys for herself, 
he would be glad to have her help. 
She did so, and gathered a class of 
poor ragged boys. Among these, the 
worst and most unpromising boy 
was one named Bob. The super- 
intendent told these boys to come to 
his house during the week, and he 
would get them each a new suit of 
clothes. They came and got their 
clothes. After two or three Sundays 
Bob was missing. The teacher went 
after him. She found that his new 


FAITH 


clothes were torn and dirty. She in- 
vited him back to school. He came. 
The superintendent gave him a 
second new suit. After attending 
once or twice Bob’s place was empty 
again. Once more the _ teacher 
sought him out. She found that the 
second suit of clothes had gone the 
same way as the first. She reported 
the case to the superintendent, say- 
ing she was utterly discouraged 
about Bob, and must give him up. 
“Please don’t do that,’ said the 
superintendent; “I can’t but hope 
that there is something good in Bob. 
Try him once more. I'll give him a 
third suit of clothes if he’ll promise 
to attend regularly.” Bob did 
promise. He received his third suit 
of clothes. He did attend regularly 
after that. He got interested in the 
school. He became an earnest and 
persevering seeker after Jesus. He 
found Him. He joined the Church. 
He was made a teacher. He studied 
for the ministry, and the end of the 
story is, that that discouraging boy 
—that dirty, ragged, runaway Bob 
—became the Rev. Dr. Robert 
Morrison, the great missionary to 
China, who translated the Bible into 
the Chinese language.—Richard 
Newton. 


599. Through Faith 


Dr. H. Clay Trumbull used to tell 
with keen pleasure of the glimpse he 
once had of the secret of Napoleon’s 
power over his soldiers. Happen- 
ing to meet a French veteran who 
had served under the great com- 
mander, Dr. Trumbull asked him: 
“Did Napoleon’s soldiers like him?” 
“Like him!” exclaimed the old 
French man, straightening up, his 
eyes snapping excitedly. “Like 
him! ,We believed in him. Napoleon 
say: ‘Go to the Moon.’ Every soldier 
start. Napoleon find the way.” 
And we have a commander who is 
greater than Napoleon. Start out in 
the Christian life, friends, and 
Christ will find the way. “Kept.” 


211 


power of God.” 
“Unto Salvation.” 


“Kept by the 
“Through faith.” 


600. Trust—WNecessity of 


I have known a timid traveller 
whose route lay across the Higher 
Alps, along a path, no broader than 
a mule’s foothold, that skirted a 
dreadful precipice, whence could be 
discerned the river far down below, 
diminished to a silver thread; and 
on that dizzy precipice I have known 
a timid traveller, who fancied it 
safest to shut her eyes and not at- 
tempt to guide the course nor touch 
the bridle—a fatal touch that would 
throw steed and rider over, till, 
bounding from shelf to shelf, they 
lay a mangled mass in the valley 
below. And there are times and cir- 
cumstances in the _ believer’s life 
when, if he would keep himself from 
sinful doubts, if he would keep 
himself from falling into despair, 
he must, as it were, shut his 
eyes, lay the bridle on the neck 
of Providence, commit his way to 
God, and, however things may look, 
make this his comfort, “He will 
never leave me, nor forsake me.” 
In such circumstances the only thing 
is to trust in God; “Walk by faith, 
not by sight.”—Guthrie. 


601. Truth—Perfect 


At various times a lofty scaf- 
folding and platform have been 
erected in the Palace grounds, from 
which a rope has been stretched to 
the building itself; and along this 
narrow and perilous pathway an 
American named _ Blondin has 
walked, or run, or crept in presence 
of tens of thousands of spectators. 
Sometimes a poor Italian has al- 
lowed himself, for hire, to be carried 
by Blondin on his back across the 
fearful chasm, to the great terror 
of many of the multitude below. 

While visiting some time ago a 
poor district in London, a city mis- 
sionary came upon this poor Italian, 
lying upon his deathbed, and much 


212 


concerned about the salvation of his 
soul. At the missionary’s request, a 
Christian gentleman also visited him, 


and sought to lead him to trust in 


Jesus, and in Him alone. He says: 

“T well remember asking him 
whether he ever had any fear when 
he was being carried by Blondin on 
the tight-rope. 

““No’, he said, ‘he was a very 
able man.’ 
~ “Then you trusted him with your 
life because you believed he would 
not let you fall?’ 

“‘Oh, yes,’ he said, 
not let me fall’” 

And then the missionary tried to 
show the poor dying man that he 
must trust Jesus just with the same 
perfect confidence, and He would 
carry him safely to heaven—R. 
Brewin. 


602. Unbelief—Reason of 


I once heard of two men who, 
under the influence of liquor, came 
down one night to where their boat 
was tied. They wanted to return 
home, so they got in and began to 
row. They pulled away hard all 
night, wondering why they never 
got to the other side of the bay. 
When the grey dawn of morning 
broke, behold, they had never loosed 
the mooring-line or raised the 
anchor! And that’s just the way 
with many who are striving to enter 
the kingdom of heaven. They can- 
not believe, because they are tied to 
this world. Cut the cord! cut the 
cord! Set yourself free from the 
clogging weight of earthly things, 
and you will soon go on towards 
heaven.—Moody. 


‘he would 


603. Unknown—Perils of the 


The old discoverers who sailed in- 
to unknown seas must have felt a 
peculiar pleasure in their daring un- 
dertakings. Spreading the canvas to 
the wind, they ventured out to the 
mysterious ocean in search of new 
countries. But their delight was 


TEMPTATION 


mingled with anxiety and fear; for, 
possessing no charts, they knew not 
what perils awaited them in their 
bold endeavour—what rocks and 
sandbanks might be in their way, 
or what monsters they might meet 
with in the lands they hoped to dis- 
cover. The search for new truth 
also has its delights. It is pleasant 
to leave the tame, unromantic shores 
of common belief, and to start on a 
voyage of discovery over the bound- 
less ocean of intellectual speculation. 
But there is danger also in this en- 
terprise. The dreary land of scep- 
ticism, and chaos of No-faith, and 
the black regions of despair, are 
somewhere out in those seas; and 
many have ventured there who 
never returned.—Thomas Jones. 


604. Truth—Awaking to 


The Holy Spirit comes like a 
rushing wind upon the disciples, and 
in an hour they are new men. The 
jailer hears and believes in a night. 
Luther, while toiling up the holy 
stairs of the Lateran, holding to sal- 
vation by works, drops that scheme 
on the way, and lays hold of the 
higher one of salvation by faith. 
Ignatius Loyola, in a dream, has 
sight of the Mother of Christ and 
awakes as a soldier of Jesus. It 
is often so. We do not so much 
grow into the possession of new 
spiritual truths as we awake to them. 
Their coming is not like the sun- 
rise, that slowly discloses the shapes 
and relations of things, but is like 
the lightning, that illuminates earth 
and sky in one quick flash, and so 
imprints them for ever on _ the 
vision.—T. T. Munger. 


TEMPTATION 


605. Evil—Deliverance From 


The young man came to the big 
city in which he found employment. 
He gave up church and Sabbath 
School. Yet he formed the habit 


TEMPTATION 


of stepping into the vestibule of a 
prominent church Sabbath evening 
in time to hear the closing hymn. 
One evening it was “The Celestial 


Country.” Four lines he afterward 
found himself humming as_ he 
worked: 


“For thee, O dear, dear country, 
Mine eyes their vigils keep; 

For very love beholding 
Thy precious name, they weep.” 


One day he met a great temp- 
tation. He paced the floor intensely 
agitated. Should he do this wrong? 
There was little chance of his be- 
ing detected. It was a high stake. 
What if he should be discovered 
after all? It would not only mean 
his dismissal, but his ruin. As he 
wrestled with the temptation he 
found himself unconsciously hum- 
ming: 

“For thee, O dear, dear country, 

Mine eyes their vigils keep ;” 


Suddenly it dawned upon him he 
Was singing, and again and again he 
sang the verse: 


“For thee, O dear, dear country, 
Mine eyes their vigils keep; 

For very love, beholding 
Thy precious name, they weep.” 


It was enough. He came to him- 
self. He went to his bedside and 
stood a moment. “I can not lose 
God and that heavenly country,” 
he thought. Then he fell upon his 
knees and prayed, “Deliver me from 
evil.” The shadows lifted. He had 
won. He felt for the first time he 
was a citizen of that better country, 
and that thought made him a true 
citizen of his country and a faithful 
employee in a great concern.—Ex- 
change. 


606. Never Give Up 

At the close of the first day of 
the battle of Shiloh, a day of severe 
Union reverses, General Grant was 
met by his much discouraged chief 


213 


of staff, McPherson, who § said: 
“Things look bad, General. We have 
lost half our artillery and a third 
of the infantry. Our line is broken, 
and we are pushed back nearly to 
the river.” 

Grant made no reply, and Mc- 
Pherson asked impatiently what he 
intended to do. 

“Do? Why, reform the lines and 
attack at daybreak. Won’t they be 
surprised ?” 

Surprised they were—and routed 
before nine o’clock. 

Every man that succeeds meets 
just such crises, and must avert dis- 
aster with a prompt reforming of 
lines and early attack. 


607. Temptation—Escaped From 


In the days of chivalry in France, 
a citadel was besieged by the enemy 
and the outworks destroyed. The 
next was fixed for the assault. ‘In 
order that none might escape under 
cover of the night, the besiegers 
guarded every foot of the wall. 
They had the garrison in a net and 
only waited for the morrow to 
slaughter them. 

No sound came from the be- 
leaguered city. Those brave but un- 
fortunate defenders seemed to wait 
their doom in silence. 

When the morning came, the 
enemy with swords drawn rushed 
in to find the citadel empty! 

Their astonishment was great. 
“Where are our foes?” they de- 
manded. 

And then an opening was found 
leading down into the sub-cellars, 
and from these a long subterranean 
passage led them out a long way 
from the citadel among quiet green 
fields and the light of day. It was 
plain that by this passage, the doors 
of which stood open, their prey had 
escaped at night. It was a refuge 
of besieged provided for such a 
crisis. 

What an encouragement to us in 
the hour of temptation to remember 


214 


that there is always a way of escape 
that is provided for just such times 
of peril—New Century Teacher. 


608. Temptation—Yielding to 


Harry Phillips tells of being in a 
hospital where an old man was dy- 
ing from an injury. He was 
evidently a man of culture, had 
been reared a gentleman; but in his 
delirium, with a look of unutterable 
anguish on his face, he would cry 
out: 

“I am going down to hell, and 
I can’t find the brake,’ his right 
foot moving restlessly under the bed- 
clothes, trying to find the pedal of 
a brake. 

“Has it been drink? Mostly that. 
What an awful waste my life has 
been! Well-born, public school boy, 
Rugby-Oxford-honors. Magnificent 
fortune at twenty-one—all gone— 
dying alone, uncared for, in a Lon- 
don Hospital at sixty. Do you know 
what ruined me? Driving four-in- 
hand. I tried to drive drink, gam- 
bling, extravagance, and _ idleness. 
Costs a lot to keep up that team; 
and then they bolted one day, and 
the brake broke, and I couldn’t hold 
them. You have seen at the top of 
some hills: ‘Cyclists, beware! This 
hill is dangerous.” That notice 
should be placed over every gin- 
palace and every gambling club. 
Over strong drink altogether.” 

Then the delirium returned, and 
the look of agony in the eyes, and 
the restless moving of the right, and 
the cry: “I can’t find the brake! 
Some one hold the leaders!” 


609. Temptations—Removing 


A stooped, grizzled man, employed 
by an automobile factory in Toledo, 
Ohio, does not look like a very im- 
portant part of this big factory. But 
the president of the company says 
that “Magnet Bill” saves his salary 
a dozen times over every day he 
works. Rain or shine, summer or 
winter, “Magnet Bill” may be seen 


VISION 


walking slowly about the plant, his 
eyes almost constantly cast on the 
ground. He gets his nickname from 
the fact that his tools consist solely 
of one tin bucket and a big steel 
magnet strapped to the end of a 
shovel handle. It is his duty to 
save automobile tires by removing 
from the roadway every nail and bit 
of iron, brass or steel that might 
cause a puncture. Thousands of 
cars are run over the roadway to 
the testing place, and it is figured 
that without the precaution taken 
by “Magnet Bill’ the cost for cut 
and punctured tires would be 
$20,000. 

If it pays in business to remove 
the cause of trouble and danger, 
how much more is that true in the 
moral life! How many lives have 
been wrecked because we did not 
take the time to remove temptations 
or go out of our way to save peo- 
ple! Life’s road would be smoother 
and safer for thousands if only we 
removed the many stumbling blocks 
lying in the way, and which will 
cause them to stumble and fall. 


610. Watchfulness—Duty of 


A believer’s watchfulness is like 
that of a soldier. A sentinel posted 
on the walls, when he discerns a 
hostile party advancing, does not at- 
tempt to make head against them 
himself, but informs his command- 
ing officer of the enemy’s approach, 
and leaves him to take the proper 
measure against the foe. So the 
Christian does not attempt to fight 
temptation in his own strength; his 
watchfulness lies in observing its 
approach, and in telling God of it by 
prayer.—W. Mason. 


VISION 


61z. Attention—Concentrated 

In my boyhood I was taken to see 
a famous quarry. Over what ap- 
peared to me a great gulf had been 


VISION 


made a pathway one plank broad 
for wheel-barrows, and over that 
perilous path quarrymen were wheel- 
ing loads of earth. I asked how the 
thing was possible, and a quarryman 
explained that he was able to wheel 
the barrow without stumbling by 
fixing his eye on the farther goal. 
He did not ignore the gulf and the 
danger, certainly did not deny their 
existence; he was aware of them. 
It was because of their presence that 
he kept his eye fixed on the goal. 
But it was his concentrated attention 
on that that kept him safe. (George 
Steven’s “The Psychology of the 
Christian Soul.”—James Hastings. 


612. Cross—Light of 


In winter there are periods when 
a thick mantle of fog covers the 
city of Geneva. When on such a 
dismal day one mounts the side of 
Mont Saleve, one comes after a time 
to a cross erected alongside a pre- 
cipitous slope and overlooking the 
entire valley of the Rhone. One 
comes at the same time to the fog 
limit. A farmer recently gave a 
tourist, who wondered at not being 
able to see the sun, this information: 
“Sir, you must climb to the cross, 
there you will find the sunshine.” 
And indeed it is so. The city, the 
lake and a good part of the valley 
are hidden from view, but the cross 
is bathed in unclouded light. 

It may be a weary climb to the 
Cross, but it pays, the sun seems so 
much brighter there because of the 
fog below. Are you still on the 
way? Can you see no light on 
ahead? Keep on, don’t get dis- 
couraged. Soon you will be bathed 
in Heaven’s own Light! 


613. Education—Marks of 


A professor in the University of 
Chicago told his pupils that he 
should consider them educated in 
the best sense of the word when 
they could say “Yes,” to every one 
of the following questions: 


215 


Has education given you sympathy 
with all good causes and made you 
espouse them? Has it made you 
public-spirited? Has it made you 
a brother to the weak? 

Have you learned how to make 
friends and keep them? Do you 
know what it is to be a friend your- 
self ? 

Can you look an honest man or 
a pure woman straight in the eye? 

Can you see anything to love in a 
little child? Will a lonely dog fol- 
low you in the street? 

Can you be high-minded and 
happy in the meaner drudgeries of 
life? Do you think washing dishes 
and hoeing corn just as compatible 
with high thinking as piano-playing 
or golf? 

Are you good for anything to 
yourself? Can you be happy alone? 

Can you look out on the world 
and see anything except dollars and 
cents? 

Can you look into the sky at night 
and see beyond the stars? 

Can your soul claim relationship 
with the Creator? — Presbyterian 
Witness. 


614. Jesus—Looking to 

An artist once drew a picture. It 
represented a night-scene. A soli- 
tary man is rowing a little skiff 
across a lake; the wind is high and 
stormy, the billows, white and 
crested, rage around his frail bark; 
and not a star, save one, shines 
through the dark and angry sky 
above. But upon that lone star the 
voyager fixes his eye, and keeps 
rowing away—on, on, on through 
the mid-night storm. Written be- 
neath the picture were these words, 
“Tf I lose that I’m lost!”—Denton. 


615. Jesus—Vision of 

I do not now remember the name 
of the place, but it was the church 
and pulpit of an orthodox clergy- 
man. He found one Sunday a slip of 


216 


paper placed on his Bible by some of 
the members of his congregation, and 
written thereon were these words, 
“We would see Jesus.” 
felt distressed, but being honestly 
desirous of being a shepherd, not a 
hireling, he was not offended; he 
set to examine himself and his work 
humbly and sincerely. The result 
was, that he made the sad and yet 
happy discovery that those people 
were justified in making the above 
demand. He thereupon “went into 
a desert place,” and within a short 
time he found in his pulpit another 
slip of paper with the following 
words written on it:—“Then were 
the disciples glad, when they saw 
the Lord.”—Pastor Funcke. 


616. God—Seeing 


Somewhere years back I heard of 
a boy who asked his father earnestly 
if anybody could see God. He had 
heard some men at the store talk- 
ing about Him. “No,” said the 
father. The answer was rough and 
the boy was timid, very timid. He 
wandered in the woods and pon- 
dered. He sat on the bank and 
fished and thought it over. He 
watched the birds build their nests, 
he saw them train their young and 
looked up through the branches long- 
ing to see God. One day the min- 
ister came to dinner and he watched 
for a chance for a private talk. It 
came, but he was told that none 
could see God and live. He went 
out to the barn and cried. The next 
summer he met an old fisherman 
and a lovely chumship began. The 
father heard of the new found 
friend and talked to the boy about 
him. “Is he a good man?” asked 
the father. 

“T like him,” was the boy’s reply. 

“What does he talk about?” the 
father wanted to know. 

“Well,” replied the boy, “he don’t 
talk much, but I'll tell you how he 
acts. For instance, last night when 
we had quit fishing and were drift- 


The pastor | 


VISION 


ing down the river and the sun was 
going down through the trees and 
it was pretty and red, I saw tears 
in his eyes, and—” 

“That will be all right,’ said the 
father. “I guess you are safe.” 
The next evening the same two 
were drifting down the river the 
same way and again the tears were 


in the old fisherman’s eyes. The 
boy reached over timidly and 
touched the old man’s arm, The 


old man did not turn his head. “I 
was never going to ever ask any 
body else this question I am going 
to ask you,” said the boy with 
trembling lip. Still the old man did 
not move; his eyes were fixed on 
the setting sun. “Can you see God?” 
the boy ventured. No answer. Ten- 
derly the boy pulled at the man’s 
sleeve. “Please tell me. Please tell 
me, won’t you? Can anybody see 
God?” The boy waited, breathless. 
Finally the old man turned a lovely 
tear stained face to the boy and 
said very tenderly: “Son, it’s get- 
tin’ so I don’t see anything else.”— 
Selected. 


617. Holy Life—Blessing of 


The west coast of Norway is in- 
dented with innumerable fiords. 
There are so many sudden turns in 
them that it is with great difficulty 
that even an expert pilot can take 
a steamer very far into them. It is 
impossible to put a light-house or 
even a buoy at each turn. Generally, 
there will be one light-house inland 
on a high peak to show the general 
direction of the fiord and then, to 
mark out the little and sudden turns, 
the pilot looks for the lights from 
the windows of the little homes of 
the fishermen that nestle along the 
shore. So the light of Jesus shines 
high and far in life, but the busy 
traveller often neglects to look so 
high, or, failing to find it, looks 
about him toward us to see if the 
lower lights are burning along the 
shore. 


VISION 


618. Light in Dark World 


“The light shineth in the dark- 
ness.” John 1:5. 

An artist once drew a picture of 
a wintry twilight, the trees heavily 
laden with snow, and a dreary dark 
house, lonely and desolate, in the 
midst of the storm. It was a sad 
picture indeed. Then, with a quick 
stroke of yellow crayon, he put a 
light in one window. The effect 
was magical. The entire scene was 
transformed into a vision of com- 
fort and good cheer. The birth of 
Christ was just a light in a dark 
world! 


619. Looking Up 

At a recent Free Church Con- 
ference at Cheltenham, Dr. Horton 
told the story of the professor who 
invariably prefaced his lectures by 


remarking: “When I was walking 
in my garden, I thought—” and 
proceeding with some _ beautiful 


teaching, till his students began to 
imagine what a grand garden their 
master must have to- be the inspira- 
tion of such grand thoughts, until 
one went to see it, and found it to 
be a little narrow backyard. “Your 
garden!” he exclaimed, “how small 
it is, how narrow, how secluded, 
how poor!” “Ah!” answered the pro- 
fessor, “but look how high it is. 
It reaches to the heavens.” So look 
up; look to the eternal hills, to God 
on his throne, and in his might face 
and conquer all these problems, 
doubts, and difficulties. 


620. Seeing Darkly 


I don’t often put on glasses to 
‘examine Katy’s work; but one 
morning not long since, I did so 
upon entering a room she had been 
sweeping. 

“Did you forget to open the win- 
dows when you swept, Katy?” I in- 
quired. “This room is very dusty.” 

“T think there is dust on your 
eye-glasses, ma’am,” she - said, 


217 


modestly. And sure enough, the 
eye-glasses were at fault and not 
Katy. I rubbed them off, and every- 
thing looked bright and clean, the 
carpet like new, and Katy’s face 
said—I’m glad it was the glasses and 
not me, this time. This has taught 
me a good lesson, I said to myself 
upon leaving the room, and one I 
shall remember through life. 

In the evening Katy came to me 
with some kitchen trouble. The 
cook had done so and so, and she 
had said so and so. When her story 
was finished I said, smiling: “There 
is dust on your glasses, Katy. Rub 
them off; you will see better.” She 
understood me and left the room. 

I told the incident to the children, 
and it is quite common to hear them 
say to each other: “Oh, there’s dust 
on your glasses.” Sometimes I am 
referred to. “Mamma, Harry has 
dust on his glasses; can’t he rub 
them off?” 

When I hear a person criticising © 
another, condemning perhaps a 
course of action he knows nothing 
about, drawing inferences pre- 
judicial to the person or persons, I 
think immediately: ‘“There’s dust 
on your glasses; rub it off.” The 
truth is, everybody wears these very 
same glasses, only the dust is a 
little thicker on some than on others, 
and needs harder rubbing to get it 
off. 


62r. Sight—Divine 

A weary missionary fell asleep 
and had a dream. A message had 
arrived that the Master was coming, 
and to her was appointed the task 
of getting all the little children 
ready for Him. So she arranged 
them on benches in tiers, putting the 
little white children first, nearest to 
where the Master would stand, then 
the little yellow, red and brown 
children, and far back sat the black 
children. When all were arranged, 
she looked, and it did not seem 
quite right to her. Why should 


218 


the black children be so far away? 
They ought perhaps to be on the 
front benches. She started to re- 


arrange them, but just as all was — 


in confusion footsteps were heard; 
it was the Master’s tread. He was 
coming before the children were 
ready. To think that the task en- 
trusted to her had not been ac- 
complished in time! The footsteps 
drew near, and she was obliged to 
look up. Lo, as her eyes rested on 
the children all shades of color and 
difference had vanished; the little 
children in the Master’s presence 
were all alike. Man makes the mis- 
take of looking upon the outward 
appearance, forgetting that God 
looketh on the heart.—Record of 
Christian Work. 


622. Overcoming 


One September day in 1858, Henry 
Fawcett accompanied his father on 
a hunting expedition, wearing tinted 
glasses to protect his eyes. Not 
seeing Henry in the way, his father 
fired at a partridge. The shot en- 
tered the eyes of the young man, 
blinding him instantly. But for the 
resistance of the glass he would 
have been killed. 

Six weeks later he was able to 
perceive light for three days. Then 
the light failed completely. 

The father said it would be easier 
to bear the calamity if “the boy 
would only complain.” But he was 
never known to complain of the 
loss of sight; he used to say that 
“blindness was not a tragedy, but an 
inconvenience.” From the first he 
reminded his friends of the phrase 
put in the mouth of Henry V at the 
battle of Agincourt: 


“There is some soul of goodness 
in things evil, 

Would men observingly distill it 
out.” 


Sympathetic friends counselled 
him to bow to the will of Provi- 
dence. But Fawcett asked what was 


VISION 


the will of Providence. Why, with- 
out trying, should he suppose that 
inaction would be the nobler part 
for him to play? It is not 
strange that a man with a spirit 
like that was able to win his appoint- 
ment to the Chair of Political 
Economy at Cambridge, when he 
was thirty years old. After a bril- 
liant record in college, he sought 
election to Parliament. Several 
times he was defeated; the voters 
found it difficult to realize that a 
blind man could represent them 
adequately. But in 1865 he was 
elected a member of the House of 


Commons. . In Parliament 
he became the champion of the 
oppressed. Gladstone made 
him Postmaster General. During 


his term of office he insisted on 
looking on the Post Office “as an 
instrument which could be made of 
service, especially to the poor.” The 
establishment of the Parcel Post and 
the Postal Savings Bank were two 
of his achievements. j For 
four years he labored in the De- 
partment. The hard work hastened 
his death. On November 6, 1884, 
his eyes were opened to see the 
light of another world. “Fawcett’s 
life,” says his biographer, “awakens 
us to the possibilities of happiness 
and usefulness without the aid of 
money or position and even despite 
one of the gravest impediments 
under which a man can labor. He 
completely forgot himself and his 
personal interests and in so doing 
found happiness and success.” 

Punch, the famous English paper, 
paid him the following tribute: 


Darkness enwrapped him, yet with 
steadfast heart 

He sought, unfaltering, the highest 
light, 

His keen-eyed spirit failed not in 
the sight 

Which sees, and seeing, loves the 
better part. 

—From the Book of Joy, by Faris. 


WITNESSES 


623. Vision—Hindered 


When a gentleman was inspecting 
a house in Newcastle with a view 
of hiring it as a residence, the land- 
lord took him to the upper window, 
expatiated on the extensive prospect, 
and added, “You can see Durham 
Cathedral from this window on a 
Sunday.” “Why on a Sunday above 
every other day?” inquired our 
friend with some degree of surprise. 
The reply was conclusive enough. 
“Because on that day there is no 
smoke from those tall chimneys.” 
Often it is the smoke of worldliness 
and sin that beclouds our view, and 
keeps us from seeing God.—S. S. 
Chronicle. 


624. Vision of the Kingdom 


A generation ago, visitors from 
America in Florence were visiting 
the studio of Hiram Powers, that 
gifted son of the Green Mountains, 
who in his fine work produced busts 
and statues and medallions which 
rivalled the Greek masters. In his 
rooms might be found the idealiza- 
tion of some of America’s most 
famous. statesmen and soldiers. 
There was the model of Liberty for 
the summit of the Capitol at Wash- 
ington, of the California pioneer 
and the Massachusetts Puritan. 

One day a visitor from America 
said to Mr. Powers: “When were 
you in America last?” Smiling, he 
replied: “Some thirty years ago.” 
“Then how is it that you manage 
to keep so well in touch with 
American life?” he was _ asked; 
and he answered: “I have never 
been out of touch with America it- 
self. For thirty years I have eaten 
and slept in Italy, but I have never 
lived anywhere but in the United 
States.” 

And so the Christian eats and 
sleeps in this age of strife and tur- 
moil and conflict, but he is living 
in the kingdom. The motives of the 
kingdom drive his life; and some 


219 


day, under the spell and service of 
the men and women who have 
caught a vision, the kingdom will 
be here——James I. Vance. 


WITNESSES 


625. Cannibal Tongues 


Cannibals are called “man-eaters” 
because they kill and devour one 
another. There may be different 
ways of killing and devouring one 
another. You may do it with the 
tongue as successfully as with the 
teeth. Does not the apostle speak 
of those who bite and devour one 
another? (Gal. 5:15). It is quite 
possible to kill and devour a man’s 
influence by backbiting and evil 
speaking. Such an unchristian 
spirit is but a remnant of the can- 
nibal age. Pray for them that de- 
spitefully use youJames Smith. 


626. Church-Members—Ideal 


Henry Ward Beecher was a great 
lover of a fine horse. A good story 
is told that once when about to take 
a ride behind a horse hired at a 
livery stable, Mr. Beecher regarded 
the horse admiringly, and remarked: 
“That is a fine looking animal. Is 
he as good. as he looks?” The 
owner replied: “Mr. Beecher, that 
horse will work in any place you 
put him, and do all that any horse 


can do.” The preacher eyed the 
horse still more admiringly, and 
then humorously remarked: “I 


wish to goodness that he was a 
member of our church.” 


627. Ruinous Refuges 


The flying fish, when terrified and 
pressed by their enemy, will fly out 
of the water and sometimes take re- 
fuge on a passing ship, where the 
sailors find great delight in catching 
them, and where the poor breathless 
things find their doom. At the sight 
of sin as an enemy, and through 
fear of coming judgment, terrified 


220 


souls will often fly out of their old 
surroundings, but instead of fleeing 
to Christ, the only saving One, they 


take refuge on the ship of mere out- . 


ward reformation, and fall an easy 
prey to pride and_ self-sufficiency, 
which work death as surely as any 
other sin. “God is our Refuge” 
(Psa. 46:1).—James Smith. 


628. Scars of Honor 


Here is an account, told by Henry 
J. Erskine of Philadelphia, of the 
only instance in which Benjamin H. 
Brewster, Attorney-General of the 
United States during Gen. Arthur’s 
administration, was ever taunted 
in court of the disfigurement of his 
face. It occurred during the trial 
of an important suit involving cer- 
tain franchise rights of the Pennsyl- 
vania railroad in Philadelphia. Mr. 
Brewster was then the chief counsel 
of the Pennsylvania company. The 
trial was a bitterly contested affair, 
and Brewster at every point got so 
much the best of the opposing coun- 
sel that by the time arguments com- 
menced his leading adversary was in 
a white heat. In denouncing the rail- 
road company this lawyer with his 
voice tremulous with anger, ex- 
claimed: “This grasping corpora- 
tion is as dark, devious, and scari- 
fied in its methods as is the face of 
its chief attorney and henchman, 
Benjamin Brewster!” This violent 
outburst of rage and cruel invective 
was followed by a breathless still- 
ness in the crowded court-room that 
was painful. Hundreds of pitying 
eyes were riveted on the poor, 
scarred face of Brewster, expecting 
to see him spring from his chair and 
catch his heartless adversary by the 
throat. Never before had anyone re- 
ferred to Mr. Brewster’s  mis- 
fortune in such a way, or even in 
any terms, in his presence. Instead 
of springing at the man and killing 
him like a dog, as the audience 
thought was his desert, Mr. Brew- 
ster slowly arose and spoke some- 


WITNESSES 


thing like this to the court: “Your 
Honor, in all my career as a lawyer 
I have never dealt in personalities, 
nor did I ever before feel called 
upon to explain the cause of my 
physical misfortune, but I will do 
so now. When a boy—and my 
mother, God bless her, said I was 
a pretty boy—when a little boy, 
while playing around an open fire 
one day with a little sister, just be- 
ginning to toddle, she fell into the 
roaring flames. I rushed to her 
rescue, pulled her out before she 
was seriously hurt, and fell into 
the fire myself. When they took 
me out of the coals my face was as 
black as that man’s heart.” The last 
sentence was spoken in a _ voice 
whose rage was that of a lion. It 
had an electrical effect, and the ap- 
plause that greeted it was superb, 
but in an instant turned to the most 
contemptuous hisses, directed at the 
lawyer who had so cruelly wronged 
the great and lovable Brewster. 
That lawyer’s practice in Phila- 
delphia afterward dwindled to such 
insignificance that he had to leave 
the city for a new field—Peter 
Zaleski. 


629. Silence—Criminal 


In a recent number of the Musical 
Courier, Fritz Kreisler, the violinist, 
tells how he secured his beautiful 
“Heart Guarnerius.” He heard it in 
the shop of a dealer and was so im- 
pressed by its pure, liquid, penetrat- 
ing tone, that he offered all he had 
for it. But the dealer had already 
sold it to an Englishman who had a 
passion for collecting violins. “That 
this divine voice should be doomed 
to silence under the glass case of a 
collector,’ exclaims Mr. Kreisler, 
“was to me a tragedy that rent my 
heart; more than ever was I deter- 
mined that I would endow it with 
life and the power to interpret the 
great messages of our music gods. 
From that day, I laid siege to the 
fortress which held the imprisoned 


WITNESSES 


Guarnerius. I gave no rest to its 
owner and jailer, who was a gentle- 
man of rare culture and attainments. 
For weeks and months I assailed 
him with my pleadings. Finally, he 
took it from its case saying, ‘Play.’ 
I played as one condemned to death 
would have played to obtain his ran- 
som. When I had finished he said: 
‘I have no right to it; keep it; it be- 
longs to you. Go out into the world, 
and let it be heard!’” 

So it seems to me of the music 
that lies imprisoned in such great 
religious ideas as God’s Fatherhood, 
Man’s Moral Victory, the final 
Triumph of Good over Evil in every 
soul and throughout the Universe. It 
is the very music of angels, the song 
of heaven, the rapture of the re- 
deemed! Those who are _ them- 
selves thrilled by these strains divine, 
have no right to condemn those 
strains to silence. They belong to 
other hearts. They belong to the 
sinful, the suffering, the despairing, 
the bereaved. They belong to the 
young upon the threshold, to the 
old beneath the sunset. As said the 
owner of the violin to the earnest 
musician, “Take it: take _ the 
message; go out into the world, and 


let it be heard!”—Marion OD. 
Shutter. 
630. Simplicity Wins 


I was much pleased with the 
advertisement of automobile tires I 
saw the other day. I had been pass- 
ing many enormous board-notices, 
gaudy in hue, striking in design, and 
each claiming superlative merit for 
their tires. “Buy Liveforever Tires! 
They last like steel!” “Use Rock- 
away Tires! No other rides so 
smoothly!” “You'll come to Ne Plus 
Ultra Tires! -Don’t wait!” “The 
Bestofall Tire! Nothing like it!” 
So the shrieking advertisements 
vibrated through the landscape. 

Then I saw the quiet announce- 
ment: “Smith tires are good tires.” 
Just that. 


221 


You can’t imagine how restful it 
was. Immediately a sense of solid 
satisfaction came over me. “Good 
tires.” No need to bluster and howl. 
No need to ransack the dictionary 
for superlatives. No need to run 
down competitors. “Smith tires are 
good tires.” I wanted to buy some 
at once. Those are the tires for me 
henceforth. “Good tires.” That is 
the acme of advertising. 

Ah, when will people learn the 
delicious value of quiet, self-re- 
specting simplicity? 


631. Speech—Slow of 


There was a king of Lydia in 
olden times who had a son who had 
the misfortune to be totally dumb. 
The prince dwelt in the splendid 
court of his father, unable to utter 
a word. Then came dreadful mis- 


fortunes. The Persians fought the 
Lydians, and Croesus was over- 
thrown. A soldier was about to kill 


the unhappy monarch, of whose 
rank he was not aware, before the 
eyes of his son, when, in that mo- 
ment of horror, fear and love did 
what human skill had not done. 
“Spare him! He is the king!” cried 
the prince. The string which tied 
his tongue had burst, from his effort 
to save his father. If we were as 
anxious to snatch others from 
eternal death as this poor prince was 
to save his father, we should find 
that we too could speak; we should 
no longer be silent and dumb on the 
subject of heaven and hell. 


632. Testimony—Best 


If you have built any truth or 
ideal into your theory of life, the 
best way to defend that truth against 
criticism or assault is just to live 
it. “Don’t label it, but uncork it and 
let it speak for itself.” “Whacher 
got?” a street gamin demanded of 
another with a bottle in his hand. 
“Rumery,” said the other; “jess 
you read.” “C-o-l-o-g-n-e,” spelled 


222 
the first. “Rats! Whacher givin’ 
us? That’s only printin’! Pull 


out yer cork an’ give us a whiff 
of the stuff.” 


633. Testimony—Effective 


“One rainy day,” said a lawyer in 
Chicago, “I met a member of the 
city council. ‘Say,’ he said, ‘are you 
a candidate for anything this cam- 
paign ?” 

“T really didn’t intend to say it, 
but the words popped out of my 
mouth: ‘Me? I am a candidate for 
heaven.’ 

“The man gripped my arm and 
pulled me into a doorway out of the 
rain. ‘Look here,’ he said, tersely, 
‘what made you say that to me?’ 

Didone \iknow, lm) sure, 9 1 
answered, ‘It flashed into my mind 
all of a sudden. I wasn’t planning 
it. I mean it, though.’ 

“ ‘Well, you’ve knocked me all in 
a heap,’ he said huskily. ‘I’m a 
candidate for heaven, too, but [ve 
come pretty near forgetting it. I 
haven’t done anything very shame- 
ful yet, but I have been losing sight 
of my religion and getting awfully 
careless. This council business 
hasn’t been good for me. I[’ve been 
kept out late nights, and the boys 
are a hilarious crowd. I’ve neg- 
lected my family and neglected my 
church, and this thing you’ve said 
Drines ita) back, over) me, lm 
going to do better. I don’t have to 
let this political business lead me 
off. I’m glad that thing was put 
into your head to say to me. I 
needed it.’ 

“One day,” continued the attorney, 
“T had been working with another 
lawyer over a case, and when he was 
ready to leave, the words slipped 
out of my mouth sort of musingly, 
‘Well, it’s all so; “The wages of sin 
is death!”’ 

“He whirled around and stared at 
me fiercely. ‘What do you mean by 
that?? You trying to preach to 
me?’ 


WITNESSES 


“‘Not a bit of it,’ I answered. 
‘What are you getting excited about? 
That’s in the Bible. Don’t you think 
it’s true?’ 

“He paused and studied several 
seconds: . ‘Yes, ):ity ismitienmne 
answered, slowly. ‘I know it’s true. 
And I haven’t been living like I 
ought to; I know that. There are 
a lot of things I have been doing 
that I wouldn’t dare have my wife 
know. I’m going to try to cut them 
out. I don’t want the wages.’ ”— 
Brotherhood Star. 


634. Testimony—Fearless 


Von Zealand, Frederick the Great’s 
greatest general, was a Christian and 
the king was a scoffer. One day the 
king was making his coarse jokes 
about the Saviour and the whole 
place was ringing with guffaws of 
laughter. It was too much for Von 
Zealand, the general that had won 
numerous and great battles for 
Prussia and had really put the 
crown on the king’s brow. 

With German militariness he stood 
up and said. amid the hush of flat- 
terers, shaking his gray head 
solemnly: “Sire, you know I have 
not feared death, you know I have 
fought for you in_ thirty-eight 
battles, and thirty-eight battles I 
have won. Sire, my hairs are gray; 
I am an old man; I shall soon have 
to go into the presence of a greater 
than thou, the mighty God who saved 
me for my sin, the Lord Jesus 
Christ, whom you are blaspheming 
against. Sire, I cannot stand to 
hear my Saviour spoken against. 
I salute thee, Sire, as an old man 
who loves the Saviour, on the edge 
of eternity.” 

Frederick the Great, with a trem- 
bling voice said: “General Von Zea- 
land, I beg your pardon; I beg your 
pardon.” The company dispersed 
in silence, and the king reflected as 
never before on that Greater One, 
whom his general reverenced, even 
above himself. 


WITNESSES 


635. Testimony—Lost 


A man who had a sweet singing 

canary felt that it was a great pity, 
when spring came, to keep the poor 
bird in the house, so he decided to 
hang the cage under a large tree in 
the yard, for the summer. The 
tree was the home of many English 
sparrows, and before he realized 
what was taking place the little 
canary had lost all of its sweet 
notes. It had spent the summer in bad 
company, and its sweet song never 
came back. When it was taken in 
the house in the fall he heard only 
its monotonous twitter, twitter, 
twitter. There are some professing 
Christians who had a beautiful tes- 
timony several years ago, but who 
have lost their witness, and now 
‘when they would “speak with the 
tongues of men and of angels,” they 
“become as sounding brass or a 
tinkling cymbal.” They have broken 
step with God and lost their ex- 
perience. My prayer is that we may 
all learn to walk with Him in the 
path of Christian felowship—O. A. 
Newlin. 


636. Testimony—Plain 


Bishop Whipple of Minnesota sat 
by the sick bed of a cultured old 
judge in the Southland, talking in 
a learned way of vital themes, when 
the dying man politely said: “Par- 
don me; but you know I’m facing 
the real things. Won’t you talk to 
me like you'd talk to my black boy, 
Jim?” The bishop said quietly, 
“You’re a sinner, like me. Jesus 
died for our sins. Trust him as a 
little child.” And the judge replied: 
“Thank you, bishop. I can get hold 
of that. That gives me peace.” 


637. Testimony—Repeated 

Up in the Adirondacks, away 
down in the bed of a stream that 
comes rushing down when the water 
is high in spring time or autumn, 
there is a round hole seven or eight 


223 


feet deep, as round as a churn and 
as smooth as glass could scrape it. 

What dug that hole? 

Look down at the bottom and you 
will see a little round pebble no 
larger than a good-sized marble. 
That bit of rock has been sweeping 
round the narrow circle of the hole 
till now it has chiseled the deep, 
churn-like place. Only a stone, 
carried around by the pressure of 
water as it comes flying down the 
ravine; and yet it has worn its way 
down into the very heart of the 
solid rock. 

Telling men the story of Jesus 
Christ sometimes gets to be just the 
same thing over and over again. 
What good can it do to repeat it? 
The hearts of men are so hard! 
They seem all seared over so that 
nothing you can say will affect them. 
Might you not as well go out and 
stand on the banks of the river 
and shout your story to the empty 
air? 

Take a lesson from the pebble at 
the bottom of the hole in the 
Adirondack rock. Keep whirling! 
Tell the story again and again, as 
God gives you the opportunity. It 
will wear its way into the hearts 
of men. The only thing is, never 
stand still and let the water go by 
and leave you just where you were 
before the storm came. Some day 
word will come to you that your 
little pebble did what God wanted it 
to do, and that will be enough for 
you.—Edgar L. Vincent. 


638. Testimony—Value of 


It does my soul good to hear (at 
a church prayer-meeting) such cheer- 
ful testimony to the value of Christ’s 
presence and blessing in affliction. 
At night, when a railroad train, 
having stopped at a station, is about 
to start again, in order that the con- 
ductor may know that everything is 
as it should be, the brakeman on the 
last car calls out through the dark- 
ness, “All right here!” and the next 


224 


man takes up the word, “All right 
here!” and so it passes along the 


line, and the train moves on.— 
Beecher. : 
639. Voice—A Saving 


A beautiful story is told of 
Jenny Lind. She was once singing 
in the opera in London in 1849. A 
young musician who had been led 
away from the path of right by 
strong drink, and had gone down 
and down until, poverty-stricken and 
ragged, he was a wanderer on the 
face of the earth, saw the sign at 
the door. Now it happened that the 
young man, Max Bronzden, had been 
a schoolmate of Jenny Lind in her 
girlhood, and in his boyhood had had 
as high ambitions and dreams as 
she, but his sin had dragged him 
down into the gutter, while she in 
her purity had mounted up “with 
wings as eagles.” As Max Bronz- 
den stood there at the door, he heard 
a ringing trill from the voice he 
knew so well. It deeply stirred him, 
and, though he was penniless, he de- 
termined to enter and hear that 
voice once more. He watched his 
chance. A crowd of richly dressed 
men and women were passing in. 
He rushed into the throng, evaded 
the ticket-agent, and gained en- 
trance. In a shadowed recess he 
crouched and listened. Like a poor 
starved flower this man with his 
sensitive musical temperament drank 
in the showers of glorious music 
which filled the great auditorium. 
And at last, when the climax came, 
and the tempest of applause which 
made the house tremble, he forgot 
alli—forgot that he was a wandering 
vagabond, forgot the throng and the 
lights, and all save that he saw the 
little barefoot girl of his boyhood’s 
worship, a queen among men. He 
rushed forward and cried, “Jenny, 
my little Jenny! I told you so. I 
said that you would rule the world 
with that voice. Speak to me, and 
tell me that you remember.” 


WITNESSES 


Put him out!” 
“He is 


“Put him out! 
shouted the multitude. 
mad! Away with him!” 

A strong arm seized him, and he 
would have been hurled out in the 
darkness, but a sweet voice cried: 
“Spare him, and let me hear him. 
What is it, poor man?” 

Max Bronzden looked up, and 
like an angel of light she stood 
above him. “Forgive me, madam,” 
he cried. “I was passing and heard 
your voice. I stole my way in; it 
seemed like I had a right to listen. 
Once the birds and I were your only 
auditors; and yet when I told you, 
one day, you would be great, you 
seemed glad of my praise, though 
I was only Max, the blacksmith’s 
son.” 

Bending over him, Jenny Lind 
cried: “Max Bronzden, my first and 
truest friend, stand; let this vast 
throng look upon you. It was he,” 
said she, “who first created in my 
heart ambition to become great. My 
stage was a lichen-covered forest log, 
and he showered upon me wild 
flowers which I prized more than 
I now prize the jewels and rare 
gifts which are emblems of my 
triumph this night. Rise, my friend,” 
she said to him, “and be worthy of 
the trust and confidence I will ever 
give you in all the future years. I 
have struggled and conquered all 
difficulties. It is not too late. Be no 
longer a vagabond, as you say you 
are, but be a man worthy of my 
friendship.” 

The astonished man could scarcely 
speak, but at last, with hoarse 
earnestness, he uttered the words, 
“With God’s help I will.” 

Years afterwards Max Bronzden, 
describing that wondrous scene, said: 
“The house had been silent as death; 
then it suddenly burst into tumul- 
tuous applause, and the curtain fell. 
I left that place a new man, with 
new aspirations and courage, and in 
all the years since that night I have 
been, by God’s help, a conqueror 


WITNESSES 


of sin. I have lived true to my 
words.” 

If Jenny Lind, by her graciousness 
and mercy, given her of God, could 
inspire that poor dissipated man to 
cast away the rags of sin and try 
again for a noble manhood; could 
encourage him to take his harp 
down from the willows, where he 
had hung it in despair, and set it 
again to music and gladness, what 
cannot Jesus Christ do with your 
heart and life, if you will but yield 
them to his fingers!—Louis Albert 
Banks. 


640. Witness—A Good 


J. D. Brash came to Manchester. 
His mother came to live with him, 
and while attending the church in 
which he was minister, gave her 
heart to God. Her son asked her 
to attend his society class, but her 
Scotch reserve made her insist upon 
a promise being given by him that 
he would never call upon her to 
speak. To this he assented, but said 
that he would tell the story of her 
conversion. At the first class-meet- 
ing he began to tell the story, but he 
had not travelled far before his 
mother very excitedly said, “You 
are not telling it right, Jack,” and 
forthwith speedily poured forth the 
story of her new-found love. He 
often told this to prove that when 
the most timid soul is aglow with 
love, there is something which 
makes it claim a share in the 
spiritual conversation of the class- 
meeting. (“Love and Life: The 
Story of J. Denholm Brash.”)— 
James Hastings. 


641. Witnesses 


When the French infidel said to 
the Vendean peasant: “We will pull 
down your churches, and destroy 
everything that reminds you of God 
and Christ,” the peasant replied, 
“But you will leave us the stars, and 
as long as the stars revolve and 


225 


shine, so long the heavens will be a 
sign unto us of the glory of God.” 


642. Witnesses—Faithful 


The disaster on the Atlantic coast 
line at Norfolk, Va., is now ac- 
counted for by a remarkable dis- 
covery. Two cars of an excursion 
train from Kingston, N. C., plunged 
into an open draw on the Elizabeth 
River. Through the promptitude of 
a farm-hand, thirty-five passengers 
were saved, but eighteen were 
drowned or killed. The mystery of 
the accident was increased by the 
positive assertion of the signal-man 
that he had displayed his red flag in 
time for the engineer to stop the 
train before entering the open draw. 
Other employees corroborated his 
assertion. The engineer, who was 
severely hurt, contended that it was 
a white flag that was shown, and he 
took it as a signal that the road was 
clear. A demand was made that the 
flag be produced. Then the mystery 
was solved. The flag had been in 
use so long that it had faded, and 
might easily, in the distance, have 
been mistaken for a white flag. It 
is sad that the need of a new flag 
should have led to such a sacrifice 
of life. 

The “blood-red” banner of Jesus 
Christ will never fade and become a 
signal for death instead of a sign 
of life to the people who are watch- 
ing us. But we need our strength 
renewed from day to day so that 
we may hold the banner high enough 
for all travelers to see and be 
saved.—Peter Zaleski. 


643. Witnesses—Standing 

At an open-air meeting in Liver- 
pool, a skeptic gave a strong address 
against Christianity to a large au- 
dience and at the close said, “If any 
man here can say a single word in 
favor of Jesus Christ, let him come 
out and say it.” Not a man moved. 
The silence became oppressive. Then 


226 


- two young girls arose, walked hand 
in hand, as if moved by the Holy 
Spirit, up to the speaker and said, 
“We can’t speak, but we will sing 
for Christ,” and they sang with great 
power, “Stand up, stand up for 
Jesus.” When the song ceased, 
every head was uncovered, all were 
deeply moved, some were sobbing, 
and the crowd quietly went away, 
apparently with no thought of the 
skeptic’s words. Can you stand with 
God against the blasphemies, against 
sneers, against temptations to dis- 
honesty, against bribery in ‘subtle 
form, against flattery, against perse- 
cution? 


644. Witnesses—Unlettered 


Mrs. Hugh Price Hughes of the 
West London Mission at the recent 
Wesleyan Conference said a strik- 
ing thing about Christian testimony: 
“Testimony of the right sort goes 
right to the heart of the people who 
sit unmoved throughout any amount 
of Christian apologetics. I myself 
realized personal religion through the 
personal testimony of a little girl- 
friend—the daughter of Benjamin 
Hellier—who told me of what Jesus 
had done for her. One girl I know, 
in London, rescued from the depths 
of infamy, has gone about among 
other girls of the same sort, and has 
built up a whole class-meeting of 
such cases. What I want to plead 
for is that the work of personal 
witnesses for Jesus should not be 
left to the unlettered and un- 
learned.” 


645. Witnessing, for Christ 


It became the most sacred duty of 
a new convert (among the early 
Christians) to diffuse among his 
friends and relations the inestimable 
blessing which he ha’ received, and 
to warn them against a refusal that 
would be severely punished as a 
criminal disobedience to the will of 
a benevolent but all-powerful Deity. 
—Gibbon. 


HYPOCRISY 


HYPOCRISY 


646. Backsliding—Difficulty of 


Disheartened by the extraordinary 
dangers and difficulties of their en- 
terprise, a Roman army lost courage, 
and resolved on a retreat. The gen- 
eral reasoned with his soldiers. Ex- 
postulating with them, he appealed 
to their love of country, to their 
honor, and to their oaths. By all 
that could revive a fainting heart 
he sought to animate their courage 
and shake their resolution. Much 
they trusted, they admired, they 
loved him, but his appeals were all 
in vain. They were not to be 
moved; and carried away, as by 
panic, they faced round to retreat. 
At this juncture they were forcing a 
mountain pass, and had just cleared 
a gorge where the road, between 
two stupendous rocks on one side 
and the foaming river on the other, 
was but a footpath, broad enough 
for the step of a single man. As a 
last resort he laid himself down 
there, saying, “If you will retreat, it 
is over this body you go, trampling 
me to death beneath your feet.” No 
foot advanced. The flight was ar- 
rested. His soldiers could face the 
foe, but could not mangle beneath 
their feet one who loved them, and 
had often led their ranks to victory 
—sharing like a common soldier all 
the hardships of the campaign, and 
ever foremost in the fight. The 
sight was one to inspire them with 
decision. Hesitating no longer to 
advance, they wheeled round to re- 
sume their march, deeming it better 
to meet sufferings, and endure even 
death itself, than trample under foot 
their devoted and patriot leader. 
Their hearts recoiled from such an 
Outrage. . . . A more touching 
spectacle bars our return. Jesus, as 
it were, lays Himself down on our 
path; nor can any become back- 
sliders, and return to the practice 
and pleasure of sin, without tramp- 
ling Him under their feet. These, 


HYPOCRISY 


Paul’s very words, call up a 
spectacle from which every lover of 
Christ should recoil with horror: 
“He,” says that apostle, “who de- 
spised Moses’ law died without 
mercy ; of how much sorer 
punishment, suppose ye, shall he be 
thought worthy who hath trodden 
under foot the Son of God?’— 
Guthrie. 


647. Backslider Reclaimed 


A pastor related in our hearing 
how he once had under his care a 
church blessed with many innocent 
women. One of the best of these, 
who had overworked herself, sud- 
denly became, as she supposed, “a 
castaway.” She sent for her pastor, 
and confided to him her deplorable 
condition. She could not pray. To 
read the Bible was a hated task; she 
must be acastaway. The pastor con- 
sidered for a while; then he said, 
“Have you confidence enough in 
me to do exactly what I tell you?” 
“Certainly,” she replied; she had full 
confidence in her pastor’s judgment. 
“Put your hand in mine,” he said. 
She obeyed. “Now give me your 
solemn promise never to open a 
Bible or attempt to pray until I 
give you leave.” After a moment’s 
hesitation she made the required 
promise, and the minister took his 
leave. I think it was that very day 
—perhaps the day after—that a mes- 
senger came in hot haste for the 
minister to hurry to the good sister’s 
house. With a quiet smile the pas- 
tor turned to that errand. As he 
showed his face at the door the 
sister rushed to him, crying, “Re- 
lease me! release me quick, or I 
shall pray! I must pray, I will pray! 
—you shall not hinder me!” “Do 
pray,” said her pastor; and that was 
the last of her being “a castaway.” 
—Christian Age. 


648. Counterfeit Christians 


The great Bank of England has 
been the victim of many forgeries 


227 


and counterfeiters during its history. 
It has lost $4,000,000 as the result 
of three such conspiracies that every- 
one knows about, while its losses in 
smaller transactions of that char- 
acter which were never made public 
have been doubtless enormous. 

But has anyone ever refused to 
accept Bank of England notes be- 
cause, perchance, some have circu- 
lated hypocrite (counterfeit) ones? 
I wonder if the man who “can’t be- 
lieve because there are so many 
hypocrites in the church” can 
answer? 


649. Disciple’s Treason 


In the long line of the Doges, in 
the grand palace in Venice, one space 
is empty, and the black curtain which 
covers it atracts more attention than 
any one of the fine portraits of the 
merchant kings. From the panel, 
now so unsightly, once smiled the 
sallow face of Marino Falieri, after- 
wards found guilty of treason 
against the state, and blotted out, 
so far as might be, from remem- 
brance. In the portrait gallery, 
which we find in the epistles of Paul, 
there is something which is very 
like what is said of Falieri. Demas 
was one who was honored in send- 
ing friendly salutation with the 
apostle Paul to the church at Co- 
losse and to Philemon, Col. iv:14; 
Philemon, 24, and yet of him the 
apostle had to say sadly, in the after 
days, in writing to Timothy: “Demas 
hath forsaken me having loved this 
present world.” No sadder state- 
ment could be made of any one— 
Pittsburgh Christian Advocate. 


650. Double-Minded Men 


Of all the people to be pitied 
those who try to keep step with God 
on Sunday and flirt with the devil 
the remaining six days of the week 
come first. They remind me of an 
old apple tree near my boyhood 
home which stood at the fence line 
by the roadside. Its branches spread 


228 


both into the field and out over the 
highway. There was always a con- 
tention as to whether the fruit of 
this tree belonged to the farmer or 
to the public. An unwritten law said 
it belonged to the one first to club it 
down. Every boy, big and little, 
watched to see when the apples were 
beginning to turn red and then the 
battle was on. I do not remember 
ever getting a. ripe apple from that 
old tree and I was careful to see 
that everybody else was treated like- 
wise. I never passed but what I 
saw lodged in its branches a lot of 
broom handies, gambrel sticks, and 
old wagon spokes. That tree got 
more clubbing than a whole orchard. 
There are many professing Chris- 
tians who hang out on both sides of 
the fence, and they receive clubs 
from every direction. The world 
doesn’t believe in their religion and 
the Gospel is a goad to the con- 
science every time they hear a ser- 
mon.—O. A. Newlin. 


651. Hypocrisy 

You cannot tell by the way a 
tree looks, whence its roots are suck- 
ing sap. There is many a man that 
wears clean linen, and has good 
associates, and appears regularly at 
the house of God, and seems to be a 
Christian man, who, if you follow 
down his roots, you will find to be 
drawing his nourishment from the 
common sewers.—H. W. Beecher. 


652. Hypocrites—Cannot Prevent 


We cannot prevent hypocrites 
arising; it is only a proof that true 
religion is worth having. You took 
a bad half-sovereign the other 
night, did you? Did you say, “All 
half-sovereigns are worthless, I will 
never take another”? Not so, you 
became more careful; but you were 
quite sure there were good half- 
sovereigns in currency, or else peo- 
ple would not make counterfeit 
ones. It would not pay anybody 
to be a hypocrite, unless there were 


HYPOCRISY 


enough genuine Christians to make 
the hypocrites pass current. (C. H. 
Spurgeon, “Barbed Arrows’)— 
James Hastings. 


653. Hypocrites—Deception of 


There are likely to be many 
familiar faces missing at the next 
meeting of the Descendants of the 
Signers of the Declaration of In- 
dependence, which takes place an- 
nually in Philadelphia, Pa. It is 
alleged that many persons have 
joined the organization under false 
pretense. The Board of Governors 
for a year has been conducting a 
quiet inquiry and has issued a call 
to all members requiring each one 
to submit a chronological map of 
his ancestral tree, showing the exact 
string by which he is tied to an 
original signer of the document. 
Obviously such a step is eminently 
just. 

There are thousands of so-called 
Christians who claim _ relationship 
to Christ, whose daily lives 
plainly disprove that claim. They 
may deceive for a while, but at the 
final judgment Christ will say to 
them, “Depart from me, I never 
knew you.” 


654. Infidel—Untruthful 


Dr. Torrey asked a man if he was 
willing to become a Christian. He 
replied, “I am an infidel.” “Why 
are you an infidel?” “Because the 
Bible is full of contradictions.” “If 
the Bible is full of contradictions 
please show me one.” “Well, there is 
one in the book of Psalms.” A 
Bible was handed to him and he 
began looking for the Psalms in the 
back part of the New Testament, 
and Dr. Torrey had to find the 
Psalms for him. He fumbled with 
the leaves for a while and then said, 
“If I had my Bible here I could 
show it to you.” “Will you bring 
your Bible to-night and meet me 
here at the close of the meeting?” 
The infidel promised but did not put 


INGRATITUDE 


in an appearance. Months afterward, 
in another city, one of the workers 
in the meeting introduced Mr. Tor- 
rey to a man who says the Bible is 
full of contradictions. Mr. Torrey 
looked square into his eyes and said, 
“You are the man who lied to me.” 
He winced and said with downcast 
face, “Yes.” 


655. Religion—Counterfeit 


“Look well to the money you re- 
ceive, for many counterfeits are be- 
ing circulated.” This warning often 
appears in our newspapers and we 
do well to heed it. Counterfeiters 
reap their largest illegimate harvests 
from the manufacture of gold coins 
containing a large amount of gold, 
but not as much as genuine coins 
contain. Sometimes alloy is added, 
while others work on genuine coins. 
They saw them through, remove the 
interior, fill up the space with base 
metal and unite the doctored coin 
by bracing. The outside in every 
case is real gold, the alloy hidden. 

Something similar is being done 
today in deceiving the church. False 
teachers are removing the gold of 
the atonement from the gospel and 
substituting the alloy of reforma- 
tion. Some are denying the divinity 
of Christ and proclaiming the 
divinity of man. “Look well to 
your religion,’ and do as we are 
so often told by manufacturers: 
“Accept no substitutes !” 


656. Religious Slacker 


A member of the Illinois legis- 
lature was introduced to an audience 
as being a churchman, a member 
meetne ME Church: of)... AS 
an introduction to his speech he 
laughingly informed the crowd that 
he was a member of the church “but 
not a very good one.” There was 
no regret or shame connected with 
the confession and the crowd seemed 
to take it as a joke. If, however, 
some one had said, Hon. M. .. . is 
a member of such and such a party, 


229 


and he had informed the audience 
that he was “not a very good one,” 
his appeal for votes would have 
been addressed to dull ears, for they 
would have dubbed him a Political 
Slacker, and rightly so. As it is 
he is a Religious Slacker and de- 
serves the contempt that a slacker 
should receive. 


657. Veneer 


A certain soap-maker having run 
out of superlatives to define the 
perfection of his product, hit upon 
a statement that said in a novel 
and compelling way the last word 
that could be said concerning it: 
“As we couldn’t improve our pro- . 
duct, we improved the box.” We 
can’t improve the content of religion, 
but we can improve the container— 
ourselves .—Men and Missions. 

Much has been said lately as to 
the kind of religion needed at the 
present day. There is but one suffi- 
cient religion and that is Chris- 
tianity. It needs not to be changed 
or improved, though some methods 
of advocating it may be bettered. 
And the Christians who display it 
to the world may be improved. The 
“box” is what people see, make the 
box more attractive. 


INGRATITUDE 


658. Ingratitude—Base 


In 1568, while Alva was still at 
the height of his power in the 
Netherlands, and blood was flowing 
like water, a Calvinist preacher, hotly 
pursued by a Spaniard, fled across 
a lake, on ice weakening under the 
sun of March. As they ran, pursuer 
and pursued, the ice cracked and 
bent and swayed under them. But 
the lighter preacher reached the 
shore in safety and looking back 
saw his foe struggling for life, and 
cries for help reached him. With- 
out delay he started back and 
dragged the sleuth of the in- 


230 


quisition from his peril. What re- 
ward? Theone rescued cast him into 
prison and lighted the faggots for 
the consuming of his saviour on the 
next day. 

The Son of God saw the result 
if he were to go back to Jerusalem. 
Had they not sought to stone Him? 
But He went back, back to Calvary 
and the tomb for us. Shall we 
crucify the Son of God afresh? We 
are not Spaniards, or living in the 
sixteenth century. We love our 
Saviour. 


659. Ingratitude—Greatest 


It is a sin to close the heart 
against God. Suppose there is a 
man in this city who is good to 
everybody, with one exception. He 
is generous and will help anybody 
in trouble except his own mother, 
whom he treats with contempt. His 
mother is one of the best of women, 
but he drives her from his door 
and lets the neighbors furnish her 
food and clothing. Does the fact 
that he is good to his wife and chil- 
dren and gives his money gen- 
erously, atone for treating his old 
mother like a brute? You call no 
man a good man who turns down 
his mother. Who would turn a 
mother from his door? but a greater 
than mother has been knocking at 
your heart’s door and you keep Him 
without. Don’t talk to me about 
being a good man when you with 
contempt turn Jesus away, treating 
Him worse than you would a tramp. 
—QO. A. Newlin. 


660. Ingratitude of the World 


Socrates, one of the wisest ‘and 
noblest men of his time, after a long 
career of service in denouncing the 
wrongs of his age, and trying to 
improve the morals of the people, 
was condemned to death and obliged 
to drink poison. Dante, when Italy 
was torn by political factions, each 
ambitious of power, and all entirely 


INVITATION 


unscrupulous as to the means em- 
ployed to attain it, labored with 
untiring zeal to bring about Italian 
unity, and yet his patriotism met no 
other reward than exile. “Florence 
for Italy, and Italy for the world,” 
were his words when he heard his 
sentence of banishment. Columbus 
was sent home in irons from the 
country he had discovered. The 
last two years of his life present a 
picture of black ingratitude on the 
part of the Crown to this dis- 
tinguished benefactor of the king- 
dom, which it is truly painful to 
contemplate. He died, perhaps, the 
poorest man in the whole kingdom 
he had spent his lifetime to enrich. 
Bruno, of Nola, for his advocacy 
of the Copernican system, was seized 
by the Inquisition and burned alive 
at Rome in 1600, in the presence of 
an immense concourse. Scioppus, the 
Latinist, who was present at the ex- 
ecution, with a sarcastic allusion to 
one of Bruno’s heresies, the infinity 
of worlds, wrote, “The flames carried 
him to those worlds.’—M. Denton. 


INVITATION 


661. Invitation—Personal 


Rev. Ford C. Ottman tells that 
once he: was holding a series of 
meetings, and noticed that up in the 
gallery at his right, night after night, 
sat a gray-haired old man. He was 
evidently under deep conviction, but 
he would never rise when the in- 
vitation was given. One night he 
pointed him out to a Christian 
woman and said to her, “To-morrow 
night I want you to sit near him, 
and when the invitation is given, ask 
him to rise.” She protested, and de- 
clared that she could never do it; 
but he insisted, and the next night 
she took her seat just behind the 
old man. When the invitation was 
given he sat still as before. Pres- 
ently Mr. Ottman saw the lady move 
forward and say something to him; 


INVITATION 


in a moment more the old man rose 
to his feet. 

Not a night passes in this present 
campaign for souls in this church, 
but that people who are convicted 
by God’s Spirit stifle their convic- 
tions, and remain inactive, who 
would come to the altar and make 
a public confession of Christ if the 
Christian man or woman in the pew 
next to them would only say the 
sympathetic or persuasive word.— 
Louis Albert Banks. 


662. Invitation—Winsome 


One of his sermons Dr. Chapman 
closed as follows: 

“I do not know what I can say 
more to you. For the last two weeks 
and more I have pleaded with every 
particle of strength that God has 
given me. I would to God I could 
charm you with the sweetness of my 
Jesus. You must come. One of 
my friends, a great preacher, tells 
the story of a woman who wanted 
to go into a city hospital. She came 
from the country, carrying a large 
old-fashioned market basket on her 
arm, full of great sprays of honey- 
suckle. She passed up and down the 
hospital wards, tossing out a spray 
of honeysuckle here and there until 
she had one left. Then she 
came to a cot with screen around it. 
She did not know what that meant, 
but you know. Without waiting, 
she pushed the curtain aside, and 
there was a girl, lying with her 
arms folded. Her eyes were shut, 
her lips closed. The woman put 
her basket down and tossed the last 
spray of honeysuckle upon the cot. 
The fregrance climbed up and up 
until it reached the girl’s nostrils. 
Then her whole expression changed, 
and she began to whisper. Curiosity 
prompted the woman to listen. 

“‘Mother, mother,’ whispered the 
girl, ‘I catch the fragrance of the 
honeysuckle outside my window.’ 
The woman waited only a second. 
My friend said she gave one spring, 


231 


took the girl in her arms, pulled her 
up against her heart and cried: 
‘Margaret! My daughter!’ She 
had wandered away in sin. They 
had lost her. The honeysuckle 
united them. 

“Ah! but I speak of the Rose of 
Sharon; the Lily of the Valley— 
Jesus, Jesus. He is in this building 
this evening. More than one night 
since we have been together I have 
been sensible of his presence. He is 
here. I plead with you to take him 
now.” 


663. Sinners Called 


In John Bunyan, God calls the 
bold leader of village reprobates to 
preach the gospel—a blaspheming 
tinker to be one of England’s famous 
confessors. From the deck 
of a slave-ship He summons John 
Newton to the pulpit; and by hands 
defiled with Mammon’s foulest and 
most nefarious traffic, brings them 
that are bound out of darkness, and 
smites adamantine fetters from the 
slaves of sin. In Paul, the apostle 
of the Gentiles, He converts Christ’s 
bitterest enemy into His warmest 
friend; to the man whom a trem- 
bling church held most in dread 
she comes to owe, under God, the 
weightiest obligations. How 
much better for these three stars to 
be shining in heaven than quenched 
in the blackness of darkness !—better 
for the good of mankind, better for 
the glory of God.—Guthrie. 


664. Word, in Season 


One day, as Felix Neff was walk- 
ing in astreetin thecity of Lausanne, 
he saw, at a distance, a man whom 
he took for one of his friends. He 
ran up behind him, tapped him on 
the shoulder before looking in his 
face, and asked him, “What is the 
state of your soul, my friend?” The 
stranger turned. Neff perceived his 
error, apologized, and went his way. 
About three or four years after- 


232 


wards a person came to Neff, and 
accosted him, saying he was in- 
debted to him for his inestimable 
kindness. 
the man, and begged he would ex- 
plain. The stranger replied, “Have 
you forgotten an unknown person 
whose shoulder you touched in a 
street in Lavsanne, asking him, ‘How 
do you find your soul?’ It was I; 
your question led me to serious re- 
flection, and now I find it is well 
with my soul.” This proves what 
apparently small means may _ be 
blessed of God for the conversion 
of sinners, and how many oppor- 
tunities for doing good we are con- 
tinually letting slip, and which thus 
pass irrecoverably beyond our reach. 
One of the questions which every 
Christian should propose to himself 
on setting out upon a journey is, 
“What opportunities shall I have to 
do good?” And one of the points 
on which he should examine him- 
self on his return is, “What 
opportunities have I lost?” “Have 
I done all the good that I could?” 
—J. A. James. 


JUDGMENT 


665. Bankrupt Lives 


Not many days ago in the State 
of Pennsylvania, an old man eighty 
years of age visited a city to with- 
draw $50.00 from a bank in which 
some years previously he had de- 
posited $3,000. He was dumfounded 
on learning that the bank had failed 
eleven years before and thus the 
savings of a lifetime swept away. It 
is related that the old man broke 
down and wept like a child. Such 
tragedies are saddening, but they are 
by no means the most deplorable, 
for what shall we say when we see 
our fellows casting their hearts’ 
treasure into plans and fancies and 
false philosophies that we know 
will surely fail them when the day 
of need shall come? 


Neff did not recognize 


JUDGMENT 


666. Escape—Narrow 


On the night of the Passover in a 
Jewish family there lay ill in bed 
a little daughter. She knew of the 
instructions given by Moses for 
their safety; she understood their 
urgency and the importance of 
obedience. As night drew on she 
asked her father whether the blood 
had been sprinkled as commanded. 
“Hush, child,” he replied; “I ordered 
it to be done.” Waiting a while and 
not being satisfied, the child again 
asked the same question; and again 
the father answered as before. But 
as midnight drew near, and her 
anxiety could not be restrained, she 
raised herself and said, “Father, take 
me in your arms and carry me out- 
side, that I may see whether the 
blood is sprinkled on the doorposts 
and lintel.” He did so, but only to 
find that his order had not been 
executed. Then the story relates, at 
the last moment he rushed into the 
house, seized the hyssop-brush, and 
with a swish dashed the blood on 
the posts and lintel, and thus made 
the household secure. It was all but 
too late. How narrow the escape! 
Those that neglect suffer equally 
with the despisers in the Day of 
Judgment.—S. J. Eales. 


667. Eyes—Blinded 


A man said to Mr. Dawson, “I 
like your sermons very much, but 
the after-meetings I despise. When 
the prayer-meeting begins I always 
go up into the gallery and look 
down, and I am disgusted.” “Well,” 
said Mr. Dawson, “the reason is, you 
go on the top of your neighbor’s 
house, and look down his chimney to 
examine his fire, and, of course, you 
get only smoke in your eyes.”—Tal- 
mage. 


668. Future Retribution 


The loving, the gentle, the sym- 
pathetic, the sacrificial Saviour, who 
loved sinning men so that he came 


JUDGMENT 


to die for them—he, calmly, de- 
liberately, over and over again, did 
teach his disciples in such a way that 
they at that time, and since then the 
great body of the church, have be- 
lieved that he meant us to under- 
stand that there is a future state of 
punishment, and that it is so great 
and dreadful a thing that all men 
should with terrible earnestness flee 
from it—H. W. Beecher. 


669. Heart-Breaking Justice 


Two sons of an officer of the At- 
lanta police force were convicted of 
burglary on their father’s evidence 
and sentenced to two years in the 
penitentiary. The two boys were 
arrested by their father in the act of 
burglarizing a store, and he ap- 
peared in court as prosecutor. 

The father, in giving evidence, 
said: “I tried to raise my boys 
right, and it nearly killed me when 
I found them trying to rob the store, 
but I fee’ it my duty under my oath 
as an officer to arrest them and 
prosecute. I told them they were 
guilty and they must take their 
punishment.” 

“There is indeed a real man,” said 
the Judge when the father had 
finished speaking, “and an officer 
who has the highest possible regard 
for his oath. He deserves to rank 
with the old Roman judge who con- 
demned his own son.” 

Our heavenly Father is not only 
compassionate, but just. Love 
must yield where disobedience calls 
for justice. 


’ 


670. Infidel—Chastising an 


In Swabia there lived a_ black- 
smith who was very strong, Hush- 
wadel by name. When he was 
young, he once was in a village in 
Thuringia and saw posted the fol- 
lowing notice: “At 8 P. M., Dr. 
Veilchenfeld of Berlin will give an 
address in the large room of the 
hotel and will prove beyond 
question that there is no God.” 


233 


“Ah,” said Hushwadel, “I must hear 
that.” 

For more than an hour and a half, 
the atheist from Berlin spoke in 
blasphemous fashion against God, 
the Bible and religion and closed by 
saying: “I have now proven in the 
clearest kind of way, that there is 
no God; but if I am wrong it would 
now be God’s moral duty to send 
down an angel to box my ears be- 
fore you all for the insults I’ve ut- 
tered against him.” 

As he looked about triumphantly, 
Hushwadel went forward to the 
speaker’s desk and said: “God greets 
you, but for such scamps as you, he 
sends no angels. Hushwadel can 
take care of that.” So saying, he 
boxed the doctor’s ears, who fell 
flat on the floor. A perfect torrent 
of applause was Hushwadel’s reward. 


671. Judging—Danger in 

There is in the minds of many 
people a misconception as to the re- 
lative heights of the Spinx and the 
Great Pyramid. This is no doubt 
due to the photographs of the two 
commonly seen in which the Sphinx 
has been near to the camera and the 
Pyramid far away. Their relative 
heights are about one to seven—a 
pigmy one foot high to a seven-foot 
giant. This is accentuated by the 
fact that the general slope of the 
quarter of a mile distance between 
the two is decidedly towards the 
Sphinx, which is in a depression in 
the sand 50 or 60 feet deep. 

Travelers are advised to visit the 
great stone face first. As you stand 
in the depths and gaze up into that 
inscrutable countenance, its very size 
is Oppressive and threatening. You 
turn away from it and climb the 
ragged edge of the Great Pyramid 
to the very top—where now is the 
mighty Sphinx? They point out an 
insignificant object whose head is 
about on a level with the sands. 
You have changed your viewpoint. 

Today, you may be in some deep 


234 
depression. You gaze hopelessly 
into some inscrutable countenance. 


It may be the monster sin, or 
sorrow, or death. Its presence is 
oppressive. Courage, friend. ‘Time 
will lighten your burden. It will ap- 
pear different to you when you 
change your point of view. Climb 
the heights, which as a child of God 
you are privileged to reach, yes, 
climb to the very top, then, looking 
back upon the source of your 
unhappiness, you will smile as you 
say, “How foolish to have worried 
so over that trivial thing.” 


672. Judgment and Mercy 


Look on the catastrophe of the 
Deluge. The waters rise till rivers 
swell into lakes, and the sea 
stretches out her arms along fertile 
plains to seize their flying population. 
Still the waters rise; and now, 
mingled with beasts that terror has 
tamed, men climb to the mountain- 
tops, the flood roaring at their heels. 
Still the waters rise; and now each 
summit stands above them, a 
separate and sea-girt isle. Still the 
waters rise, and crowding close on 
the narrow spaces of lessening hill- 
tops, men and beasts fight fiercely 
for standing room. Still the thun- 
ders roar and lightnings flash, and 
rain descends, and the waters rise, 
till the last survivor of the shrieking 
crowd is washed off, and the head of 
the highest Alp goes down beneath 
the wave. Now the waters rise no 
more. . . . Death for once has 
nothing to do, but ride in triumph 
on the top of some giant billow, 
which, meeting no coast, no con- 
tinent, no Alp, no Andes, against 
which to break, sweeps round and 
round the world. We stand aghast 
at the scene; and as the corpses of 
gentle children and sweet infants 
float by we exclaim, “Hath God for- 
gotten to be gracious? Hath He in 
anger shut up His tender mercies?” 
No; assuredly not. Where, then, is 
His mercy? Look here. Behold 


JUDGMENT 


the ark, as, steered by an invisible 
hand, she comes dimly through the 
awful gloom. Lonely ship on a lonely 
ocean, she carries mercy on board, 


and holds the costliest freight that 


cver sailed the sea.—Guthrie. 


673. Judgment by General Aim 


I can understand how a man may 
go to burn down a house or a city 
wickedly, and yet, on the march, 
help up a companion if he falls 
down, give him food if he is hungry, 
and do a thousand kind acts. But the 
wrong thing for which he is march- 
ing is not modified by these in- 
cidental kindnesses on the road. 
You may have a great many 
moralities, a great many excellent 
traits; and yet, if the great end of 
your life is not divine, is not tend- 
ing towards immortality, you are un- 
der condemnation—H. W. Beecher. 


674. Judgment Coming 

An African chief had done 
something for which the English 
government wished to punish him 
and sent a gunboat for this purpose. 
A runner brought him word that 
the boat had entered the river. He 
had the courier killed. The next 
day a second runner arrived to tell 
him how far the boat had come up 
the river. This poor fellow also lost 
his head. And the same fate was 
met with by the other couriers who 
arrived the following days. This 
did not, however, keep the English 
boat away nor delay the day of 
judgment. Suddenly the jungle 
echoed with thunder of cannon and 
the huts of his kraal collapsed as 
if made of cardboard. 

How do we treat the messengers 
of God who come to tell us of ap- 
proaching judgment? We may 
have silenced them, but the judg- 
ment day is coming. You may have 
silenced your conscience, grieved the 
Holy Spirit of God, left unopened 
the Holy Bible, and turned your 


JUDGMENT 


back to your Christian friends.—but 
the judgment day is coming. 


675. Judgment Day 

It was my sad lot to be in the 
Chicago fire. As the flames rolled 
down our streets, destroying every- 
thing in their onward march, I saw 
the great and the honorable, the 
learned and the wise, fleeing before 
the fire with the beggar and the 
thief and the harlot. All were alike. 
As the flames swept through the 
city it was like the judgment day. 
The Mayor, nor the mighty men, 
nor the wise men could stop these 
flames. They were all on a level 
then, and many who were worth 
hundreds of thousands were left 
paupers that night. When the day 
of judgment comes there will be no 
difference. When the Deluge came 
there was no difference; Noah’s ark 
was worth more than all the world. 
The day before it was the world’s 
laughing-stock, and if it had been 
put up to auction you could not have 
got anybody to buy it except for 
fire-wood. But the Deluge came, 
and then it was worth more than all 
the world together. And when the 
day of judgment comes Christ will 
be worth more than all this world— 
more than ten thousand worlds.— 
Moody. 


676. Judgment—God’s 

General Howard, the Christian 
soldier, told a friend a very touch- 
ing incident of General Grant when 
he visited him on his death bed. The 
great general was nearing the end, 
the hand of death was on him, his 
throat was muffled, and he could 
not speak clearly. General Howard 
reminded him of his great service. 
He told him that the country would 
hold him always in grateful re- 
membrance; then the muffled voice 
interrupted him, and with eagerness 
he turned to one of whose piety he 
was as certain as of his courage— 


235 


“Howard, tell me about God.”’—In 
His Name. 


677. Judgment—Infallible 


The following story is told of 
Judge Gray, now in the United 
States Supreme Court:—A man was 
brought before him who was justly 
charged with being an offender of 
the meanest sort. Through some 
technicality the Judge was obliged 
honorably to discharge him, but as 
he did so he chose the time to say 
what he thought of the matter. “I 
believe you guilty,’ he said, “and 
would wish to condemn you 
severely, but through a petty tech- 
nicality I am obliged to discharge 
you. I know you are guilty, and so 
do you; and I wish you to remember 
that you will some day pass before 
a better and a wiser Judge, when 
you will be dealt with according to 
justice, and not according to law.” 
—S. S. Chronicle. 


678. Judgment Seat 


It is said an Hungarian king, find- 
ing himself on a certain day de- 
pressed and unhappy, sent for his 
brother, a good-natured but rather 
indifferent prince. To him the king 
said, “I am a great sinner and fear 
to meet God.” Here was a king 
facing Job’s question, “What shall 
I do when God riseth up? And 
when He visiteth, what shall I 
answer Him?” But the prince only 
laughed at him and treated the 
matter as a joke, just as some of 
you are doing now. This did not 
serve to relieve the royal un- 
happiness. When you get a vision 
of your guilt before God, you want 
help and your friends may laugh 
at your seriousness, but that will 
never answer the question. It was 
a custom in Hungary at that time 
that if the executioner at any hour 
sounded a trumpet before a man’s 
door, it was a signal that he was 
to be led forth to execution. The 


236 


king sent the executioner in the 
dead of night to sound the fateful 
blast before his brother’s door. The 


prince, awaking from sleep, realized - 


its awful import. Quickly dressing, 
he stepped to the door and was 
seized by the executioner, and 
dragged pale and trembling into the 
king’s presence. In an agony of 
terror he fell upon his knees before 
his brother and begged to know in 
what way he had offended him. 
“My brother,” answered the king, 
“af the sight of a human executioner 
is so terrible to you, shall not I, 
having grievously offended God, fear 
to be brought before the judgment 
seat of Christ?” The sense of sin 
makes us all fear to face God. We 
are reminded in the Bible that “It 
is a fearful thing to fall into the 
hands of the living God.”—O. A. 
Newlin. 


679. Justice and Friendship 


~ Themistocles, when he was told 
that he would govern the Athenians 
extremely well if he would do it 
without respect of persons, said, 
“May I never sit on a tribunal where 
my friends shall not find more 
favor from me than strangers.’”— 
Plutarch. 


680. Justice—Wings of 

Not many months ago, when it 
became known that Dr. Crippen, the 
American physician who murdered 
his wife, had taken passage across 
the ocean, aerial messages swifter 
than lighning, conveying a minute 
description of the man, were sent 
to every ship on which he might 
have sailed. As a result, Dr. Crip- 
pen, ignorant of the fact that his 
identity had been disclosed, walked 
into the arms of detectives when his 
steamer landed. 

While the alleged criminal felt 
secure from observation, and con- 
fident of retaining his liberty, the 
mysterious forces of nature were 


JUDGMENT 


working against him. He was 
hunted down by the unseen, silent 
currents and the very ether pro- 
claimed him to the world. Instead 
of landing inconspicuous and un- 
known, he stepped ashore as if in 
the focus of a vast searchlight. 

Truly the way of the transgressor 
is hard, but it is doubly hard now 
that the miracles of science have 
been applied to the detective art. 
Under the complex and highly de- 
veloped system of modern detection 
the fugitive from law finds his 
chances for escape growing slimmer 
day by day. 


681. Physical Retribution 


In that salvation propounded by 
Christ Jesus, there is amnesty for 
the past, in so far as it is related 
to the mind and will of God. The 
pardon of sin never extends to those 
transgressions that take hold of 
natural law. If a man, in drunken 
fury, has hewn off his hand, the 
penalty is not averted. If a man 
in a quarrel has had his face scarred, 
there is no pardon that restores the 
comeliness of his countenance. The 
violation of natural law is inevitably 
followed by a corresponding penalty. 
—H. W. Beecher. 


682. Refuge—Insufficient 


Some parts of the coast of the 
Isle of Wight abound in caves. In 
one of these was found the body 
of a poor Frenchman. He had been 
a prisoner, and had escaped from 
prison, and for a long time con- 
cealed himself there, probably in the 
hope of escaping by some vessel 
which might pass. Many a weary 
day passed, however, and he still re- 
mained a prisoner, till at last, not 
venturing to leave his retreat, he 
perished from want. So it is with 
those who seek refuge in insufficient 
places. “They make lies their re- 
fuge, and under falsehood hide them- 
selves.” They find out their mis- 


JUDGMENT 


take when it is too late—C. S. 


Bowes. 


683. Responsibility—Evading. 

Some years ago there was a bridge 
at Bath in so crazy a condition that 
cautious persons chose rather to 
make a long circuit than run the 
risk of crossing it. One day, how- 
ever, a very nervous lady, hurrying 
home to dress for the evening, came 
suddenly upon the spot without, till 
that moment, remembering the 
danger. The sight of the bridge re- 
minded her of its ruinous state, 
just as she was about to set her foot 
upon it. But what was she to do? 
If she went on the frail arch might 
give way under her; to go round 
would be fatiguing and attended 
with much loss of time. She stood 
for some minutes trembling in 
anxious hesitation; but at last a 
lucky thought occurred to her. She 
called for a sedan-chair, and was 
carried over in that conveyance! 
You may laugh, perhaps, at this 
good lady’s odd expedient for 
escaping danger by shutting out the 
view of it. But is not something of 
the same kind happening around you 
every day? Those people who are 
alarmed and perplexed at the danger 
of having to judge for themselves 
in religious matters think to escape 
that danger by choosing to take 
some guide as an infallible one, and 
believe or disbelieve as he bids 
them. What is this but crossing the 
crazy bridge in a sedan-chair ?>— Ex- 
celsior. 


684. Reward—The Master’s 


One winter’s day I was at the 
railway station at New York. There 
was a large crowd of persons de- 
siring to go from New York to 
Boston, and we all had to pass 
through a narrow way by the gate- 
keeper. Everybody had to show his 
ticket, and, as usual, there were many 
whe could not conveniently find 


237 


them. They said they had them, but 
the gatekeeper was inexorable. “You 
must show your ticket,” he said, “if: 
you please””’ There was both 
grumbling and swearing on the part 
of the passengers. After most of 
them had passed through, a gentle- 
man said to the ticket-collector, 
“You don’t seem to be very popular 
with this crowd.” He just cast his 
eyes upwards to the ceiling on the 
floor above, where the superintend- 
ent’s office was, and said, “I don’t 
care anything about being popular 
with this crowd; all I care for is 
to be popular with the man up 
there.” —Pentecost. 


685. Self-Judgment 


If all other men were but four 
feet high, a man of five feet would 
be considered a giant. If he puts 
his standard low enough, a man 
always can judge favorably about 
himself.—H. W. Beecher. 


686. Sowing and Reaping 


A young man came to a man of 
ninety years of age and said to him, 
“How have you made out to live 
so long and be so well?” The old 
man took the youngster to an or- 
chard, and, pointing to some large 
trees full of apples, said, “I planted 
these trees when I was a boy, and 
do you wonder that now I am 
permitted to gather the fruit of 
them?” We gather in old age what 
we plant in our youth. Sow to the 
wind and we reap the whirlwind. 
Plant in early life the right kind 
of a Christian character, and you 
will eat luscious fruit in old age, 
and gather these harvest apples in 
eternity.—Talmage. 


687. Unheeded Warnings 


A man would not go into a plague 
hospital and inoculate himself with 
the plague when he knew that ninety- 
nine of every hundred that took it 


238 


would die; but you do! No man 
seeing twenty or thirty men attempt- 
ing to walk along the face of a 


cliff, and all falling over and perish-_ 


ing, would follow them; but you 
do! No man seeing the flame and 
the furnace heat of the building, 
and one fireman falling through, and 
another, and hearing the word, 
“Stand off!” would go in; but you 
rush in, even though the others 
perished before you. Here are men 
that think they can go down into 
the house of death, amid the lures 
of corruption there, and come out 
unscathed; you are rotten already! 
Men think they can play the part of 
a rascal and be prosperous in life; 
the halter is around their neck! 
They think that they can drink, and 
cast off the danger; they are on 
the broad road, and not far from in- 
famy! 

O, slow of heart to believe the 
testimony of mankind, the testimony 
of your own experience, and the 
solemn word of God!—H. W. 
Beecher. 


LOVE 


688. Brethren—Love of 


Who are your most intimate 
friends and associates? A member 
of my church once boasted to me 
that she did not have many friends 
in the church. Somehow she seemed 
to imagine that this fact argued her 
social superiority. Alas, it was only 
too true that her affections were 
upon this world, and her friendship 
for worldly people. As thousands 
of others in our churches, she was 
probably a stranger to grace. All 
who are beneficiaries of a blood- 
bought brotherhood have the same 
Father, and are therefore brethren, 
and hence should love one another. 
How can we say we love God, whom 
we have not seen, and yet not love 
our brother whom we have seen? 
Of the early Christians, it was often 


690. 


LOVE 


remarked, “Behold how they love 
one another.’”—J. W. Porter. 


689. Love Adds to 


J. M. Barrie has said, “The praise 
that comes of love does not make 
us vain, but humble rather.” In a 
magazine recently I saw a distinc- 
tion drawn between what were 
called “plus” and “minus” people. 
Did you ever think that there are 
people whose most fitting symbol 
is a “minus” sign? They never 
add to your happiness or your hopes 
or your faith either in yourself or 
anybody else. Rather they take away 
from these. When they leave your 
company, you feel that you are 
somehow poorer than you were in 
your own esteem, and in your belief 
in others. These are the “minus” 
people. But there are others, thank 
God, of a different sort. They never 
come to us but they add to our 
store of all the best things far be- 
yond their thought or intention. 
They believe in us, and so help us 
to do better. They draw out the 
best side of us, and sometimes that 
side surprises even ourselves. They 
radiate courage and hope and faith. 
Their praise humbles us, yet leaves 
us tingling with desire to be more 
worthy of it. I ask you, Is it not 
better to be “plus” than “minus”? 
(A. Alexander, “The Glory in the 
Gray.”)—-James Hastings. 


Love—Arms of 


Rev. Thomas Collins, in visiting 
one of his parishioners, found her 
in a very depressed condition. She 
had her baby in her arms. Mr. Col- 
lins said, “Drop that little one upon 
the floor.” With an air of wonder at 
the request, she refused. “Well,” 
said he, “for what’ price would you 
do it?” “Not for as many dollars 
as there are stars.” “You would 
not?” “No, I would not.” “And 
do you really think that you love 
your feeble children more than the 
Lord does his?” Her face 


LOVE 


brightened, and, aided by that lesson 
from her maternal love, faith grew 
strong.—Foster. 


691. Love—Chastening 


In the city of Pottsville, Pa., the 
broken end of a high voltage wire 
was lying upon the pavement, along 
which the engineer, Mr. Hildebrand, 
was walking, unmindful of the fact. 
Mr. Schlitzer saw the danger and 
yelled to warn him, but his voice 
was drowned by the noise around. 
Picking up a stone he threw it, and 
hit Hildebrand on the chest. He 
looked up and avoided the wine 
just as he was about to step upon it. 
With tears streaming down his face 
he thanked Schlitzer for saving his 
life. How often the Lord in the 
use of the chastening rod saves us 
from some terrible calamity.—C. F. 
Reitzel. 


692. Love—Conquest of 


I remember to have heard a story 
of a bad boy who had run away 
from home. He had given his father 
no end of trouble. He had re- 
fused all the invitations his father 
had sent him to come home and be 
forgiven, and help to comfort his 
old heart. He had even gone so far 
as to scoff at his father and mother. 
But one day a letter came, telling 
him his father was dead, and they 
wanted him to come home and 
attend the funeral. At first he de- 
termined he would not go, but then 
he thought it would be a shame not 
to pay some little respect to the 
memory of so good a man; and so, 
just as a matter of form, he took 
the train and went to the old home, 
sat through all the funeral services, 
saw his father buried, and came back 
with the rest of the friends to the 
house, with his heart as cold and 
stony as ever. But when the old 
man’s will was brought out to be 
read the ungrateful son found that 
his father had remembered him 
along with all the rest of the family, 


239 


and left him an inheritance with 
the others, who had not gone astray. 
This broke his heart in penitence. 
It was too much for him, that his 
old father, during all those years 
in which he had been so wicked and 
rebellious, had never ceased to love 
him.—M oody. 


693. Love—Intelligent 


You may any day see for your- 
selves an expenditure of love and 
sacrifice, which yet is absolutely use- 
less for the purposes of rescuing 
or saving a man in some terrible 
catastrophe. A man may be drown- 
ing in the river, and those who love 
him may be standing on the bank | 
in an agony of fear and horror, they 
may even jump into the water in 
the extremity of self-sacrifice; but, 
after all, it is only the expert swim- 
mer, or one who can apply an ap- 
paratus for saving life, who is of 
any avail to rescue him. A man 
may fall down in a fit in the street, 
and those who love him best may, 
by their well-meant endeavors to 
relieve him, only contribute to his 
malady. It is again the expert, the 
doctor or the nurse, who can save 
him. So with our blessed Lord. It 
is not love that does it all—love by 
itself—but the love of God, that is, 
love which has the knowledge of 
the man’s deep-seated malady, not 
of its more prominent symptoms 
only, and so, with the knowledge of 
the malady, has the knowledge of 
the only possible remedy, to which 
He must certainly claim a mo- 
nopoly, inasmuch as He alone knows 
the conditions which make it ef- 
fectual, or the deep-seated nature of 
the disease which it is meant to 
reach.—Canon Newbolt. 


694. Love—Measuring 

In the engine-room it is impossible 
to look into the great boiler and see 
how much water it contains. But 
running up beside it is a tiny glass 
tube which serves as a gauge. As 


240 


the water stands in the little tube, 
so it stands in the great boiler. 
When the tube is empty, the boiler 
is empty. Do you ask: 
I know I love God? I believe I love 
him, but I want to know.” Look 
at the gauge. Your love for your 
brother is the measure of your love 
for God. 


695. Love Never Faileth 


In Brooklyn one day I met a 
young man passing down the streets. 
At the time the war broke out the 
young mam was engaged to be 
married to a young lady in New 
England, but the marriage was post- 
poned. He was very fortunate in 
battle after battle, until the Battle of 
the Wilderness took place, just be- 
fore the war was over. The young 
lady was counting the days at the 
end of which he would return. She 
waited for letters, but no letters 
came. At last she received one ad- 
dressed in a strange handwriting, 
and it read something like this:— 
“There has been another terrible bat- 
tle. I have been unfortunate this time; 
I have lost both my arms. I cannot 
write myself, but a comrade is writ- 
ing this letter for me. I write to 
tell you you are as dear to me as 
ever; but I shall now be dependent 
upon other people for the rest of 
my days, and I have this letter 
written to release you from your 
engagement.” This letter was never 
answered. By the next train she 
went clear down to the scene of the 
late conflict, and sent word to the 
captain what her errand was, and 
got the number of the soldier’s cot. 


She went along the line, and the mo- 


ment her eyes fell upon that number 
she went to that cot and threw her 
arms round that young man’s neck 
and kissed him. “I will never give 
you up,” she said. “These hands 
will never give you up; I am able 
to support you; I will take care of 
you.” My friends, you are not able 
to take care of yourselves. The law 


“How do. 


LOVE 


says you are ruined, but Christ says, 
“I will take care of you.”—Moody. 


696. Love—Protecting 


Dr. David Smith has given us a 
beautiful incident which he calls “a 
parable of life.” 

He writes: “A few seasons ago a 
little yacht was cruising among the 
Western Islands of Scotland, and 
one sullen evening a gale set in 
from the broad Atlantic. It came 
moaning over the long, rolling swell, 
and caught the frail craft off a 
perilous lee shore. There was no 
shelter at hand; but the old skipper 
had known that treacherous coast 
from boyhood, and he said that 
there was a harbor some distance 
away, and he thought he could make 
it. And so, through the darkness, 
lit only by the gleam of phosphores- 
cence in her wake, the little ship 
went plunging on her course amid 
the wild welter of wind and wave. 
At length she swung into smooth 
water, and they let go the anchor, 
and, turning into their berths, went 
peacefully to sleep. 

In the morning the owner came 
on deck and surveyed the scene—a 
little loch, girt about by dark, purple 
mountains. It was a quiet haven; 
but, looking toward the entrance, 
he beheld a narrow channel, with 
sharp rocks jutting here and there, 
and all awash with boiling surf. To 
think of passing that way! The 
least swerving of the tiller, and 
those jagged teeth would catch the 
frail timbers, and grind them to 
splinters, and every life would 
perish. He gazed awhile; then he 
shuddered, and, turning to the old 
skipper, he exclaimed, ‘Did we— 
pass there in the darkness?” 

We regard the call of the new 
year, and we are astonished at the 
wisdom and the goodness of God 
which have led us so patiently and 
successfully through the perilous 
places of the past year. “And we 
shall never realize what a debt we 


Titi wis LOVE 


; 


= rit 
owe to the unseen love which has 
attended us until we get home to 
the city of God, and from its shin- 
ing battlements survey the long road 
which we have traveled over the 
wide wilderness.” God has been our 
Guide, our Pilot. 


“He leads us on 

By paths we do not know. 

Upwards he leads us, though our 
steps are slow, 

Though oft we faint and falter on 
the way, 

Though storms and darkness oft 
obscure the day: 

Yet, when the clouds are gone, 

We know he leads us on.” 


697. Love—Sacrificial 


A little boy had a canary bird 
which he loved very much. His 
mother was taken ill, and the sing- 
ing of the bird gave her great an- 
noyance. The boy was told by the 
mother that the bird gave her great 
pain by its singing. He went at 
once and gave the bird away to his 
cousin, and then came home and told 
his mother that the bird would not 
disturb her any more, for he had 
given it away. “But did you not 
love it very much?” she asked him. 
“How could you part with it?” 
“Yes,” he replied, “but I love you 
a great deal more. I could not 
really love anything that gave you 
pain.” We must love God as this 
boy loved his mother, more than 
we love anything else, and also 
everything that grieves Him we 
must give up, however much we 
may like it—Selected. 


698. Love—Showing Christ’s 


A beautiful legend of the second 
century tells how a missionary told 
the story of the Christ on the banks 
of the Arno. A Roman prince re- 
turned to his castle of stone to 
feast. He heard a tap at the win- 
dow and through it he saw the 
beautiful face of a child. In sweetest 


241 


music he heard the words, “The 
Christ-child is hungry.” He did-not 
wish to be disturbed in his selfish 
pleasure, so he sent a soldier to 
drive away the child intruder. But 
the delicacies of his table became as 
ashes. Again he heard the tap at 
the window, and he saw a face, 
like the cherub of Raphael, out in 
the storm. Amid the confused 
revelry he heard the still, small 
voice saying, “The Christ-child is 
cold.” He ordered the child driven 
away and the curtains drawn close. 
Instantly the very fire grew cold, 
and a chill almost congealed the 
heart of the prince. Then the ice 
began to melt, and the prince came 
to himself. He flung open the door 
and rushed out, calling after the re- 
treating child. He followed until 
he came to a poor house, where the 
widow was dead and the orphans 
were crying in the dark. The 
Christ-child told him to take these 
children to his castle and be a father 
to them. The servants brought 
them and gathered in other children. 
After that his house was their home 
and his shield their protection. Thus 
the Christ-child declared the Father 
all-merciful, and we can declare 
him. The love and generosity of 
Christmastide help man to under- 
stand the love of God. As the star 
led the wise men from the East to 
Jesus, so the kind words and acts of 
Christmas lead honest souls to 
Christ, and to God.—A. W. Lewis. 


699. Love—Telegram of 

“And thou shalt call his name 
Jesus; for it is he that shall save 
his people from their sin.” Matt. 
1:21. 

A father in Watford, two years 
ago, was greatly troubled about his 
son. The lad had gone wrong, and, 
ill and despondent, he wrote home, 
fearfully, as if to ask if there was 
any hope. The father sent a tele- 
gram to him consisting of one word, 
“Home,” and it was signed “Father.” 


24? 


Now the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ is God’s telegram to the sin- 
ful world, summed up in one word, 
“Home,” and signed by one name, 
“Father.” ) 


700. Love—Test of 


You remember how the artist 
Romney left his wife in the 
provinces and went to London to 
make himself fame; how for thirty 
years he lived amid London’s ap- 
plause, neglecting the wife of his 
youth because she might have been 
an incumbrance on his advancement, 
until at length, broken and diseased, 
he left the great city and returned 
to the wife he had treated so shame- 
fully. His life had been artistic! 
Yes, but ugly, repulsive, morally 
weak. And how did his wife re- 
ceive him? Oh! she was no artist 
and no great lady. She could not, 
_like Lady Hamilton, sit for pictures 
of physical beauty. She was pro- 
vincial and plain and of no great 
intellectual power. But she shone 
with all the strength and beauty of 
God’s sanctuary, for she freely for- 
gave her husband and nursed him 
tenderly, until his wretched life went 
out amid the care of her love. Well 
might Edward FitzGerald say that 
this quiet act of hers is worth all 
the pictures Romney ever painted. — 
Christian World Pulpit. 


yor. Love—Transforming 


Victor Hugo once tried to show 
the influence of a man of mag- 
nanimity, overflowing kindness and a 
heart that loved without regard to 
exterior conditions. He tells us 
about his ideal Christian. His man 
is a bishop. He moved out of the 
bishop’s palace into the gardener’s 
cottage, and brought the patients 
from the hospital into his palace. 
His salary was 15,000 francs per 
year. Ten thousand of this he 
gave to ten different organizations 
for the poor and 4,000 for the assis- 
tance of prisoners, the liberation of 


, 


LOVE 


debtors and the payment of poor 
schoolmasters. This left him 1,000 
francs for his sister, his servant, and 
himself, 
and could go to a poor man’s house 
and hold his tongue for hours, sit- 
ting beside a man who had lost the 
wife he loved, or a mother be- 
reaved of her child. He saw the 


' 


‘ .S 
¥ 
i 
%, 
7 


, 
t 


He knew how to be silent, — 


richest man in his diocese every 


Sunday give one sou to an old 


beggar, and he quietly remarked to ‘ 


his sister, “Look at our millionaire, 
buying heaven for a sou!” One day 
his village was robbed by a group 
of bandits who had descended from 
the caverns in the mountains. The 
leader was a bold scoundrel, and 


the police in trying to capture the © 


chief desisted because of the loss 
of their fellows through skillful 
marksmen. One day the good 
bishop decided to spend a week up 
in the gorge infested by these 


bandits. His sister said, “They 
will plunder you.’ “Ah, I, have 
nothing.” “They will kill you.” 


“What? An old, old priest?” So, 
despite all warnings, he went up into 
the mountains and remained for a 
fortnight, preaching and giving the 
sacraments. When he anounced that 
he would sing the Te Deum, pon- 
tifically, there were no vessels in the 


sacristy. That night a large chest 


was brought to the bishop’s tent. It 


contained a cope of gold cloth, a — 
miter set with jewels, a magnificent — 
crozier, and a letter from the chief 
of the bandits, giving to the poor 
bishop the treasure stolen from the — 


great cathedral. Always he left the 
string of the door hanging on the 
outside so that anyone could enter 
who desired. 

[" One night he took into his little 
house an escaped convict. At day- 


break it was found that the convict — 
had stolen two silver candlesticks — 


and fled. Taken by the police, the 


convict was brought back, and with 


him the candlesticks and the gold 
plate. But the good bishop made 


LOVE 


the soldiers release Jean Valjean, 
saying. “These candlesticks belong 
to this man.” Then he bade the 
gendarmes retire. When the room 
was empty, the bishop laid his hands 
on the shoulders of Jean Valjean, 
who was broken utterly, and said 
afterward, “In that moment I told 
the bishop everything that I ever 
did.” To whom he answered, “Jean 
Valjean, my brother, you no longer 
belong unto evil, but to good. I 
have bought your soul from you. I 
withdraw it from black thoughts and 
the spirit of sedition, and I give 
you unto God.” And in that hour 
he turned tkis convict away from 
evil and sent him forth to become 
a transformer of men, of evil 
women, selfish worldlings, and to 
turn them unto God. Such power 
for transformation belongs unto 
love. Oh, the most beautiful ob- 
ject there is on earth is not the 
Parthenon or the Louvre! The 
grandest spectacle we see is not the 
march of summer’s storm, nor the 
might of some Niagara, nor the 
stateliness of some abbey or cathe- 
dral! The most beautiful things 
on our earth are not wrought in 
colors nor carved in stone. These 
great deep, rich, just, loving natures 
—these carry the power of trans- 
formation.—Newell Dwight Hillis. 


702. Love—Unbounded 


When Frank Higgins, the lumber- 
jack “Sky-Pilot,” was taken sick and 
plans were made to take him to the 
city hospital, the big fellows he had 
led to Christ held a consultation and 
decided to send one of their number 
along with him to be of any service 
possible, for they loved the man 
who had taught them to love the 
Lord. The man chosen was a big, 
oversized fellow, decidedly out of 
place in the hospital, as he stood 
around in the corridors waiting to 
be of some use to Frank. When 
the time for the operation came he 
said: “Frank, you know we love 


243 


you and want to help you; now 
while the doctors are operating I 
will be at your door; and, Frank, if 
the doctors find that they need a 
quart of blood, or a piece of bone 
or skin, they can call on me. Frank, 
you can have every drop of blood 
or every bone in this body; now 
don’t forget, I will be at the door.” 
Have we said as much as that to 
Him who saved us by the death 
on the cross?—Friend of Russia. 


703. Love—Voice of 


Workmen were blasting the castle 
rock (Stirling), near where it abuts 
upon a walk that lies open to the 
street. The train was laid and lit, 
and an explosion was momentarily 
expected. Suddenly trotting round 
the great wall of the cliff came a 
little child going straight to where 
the match burned. The men 
shouted, and by their very terror in 
shouting alarmed and bewildered the 
poor little thing. By this time the 
mother also had come around, in a 
moment saw the danger, opened 
wide her arms, and cried from her 
very heart, “Come to me, my 
darling!” and instantly, with eager 
pattering feet and little arms opened 
to her arms, the little thing ran back 
and away, and stopped not until 
she was clasped in her mother’s 
bosom.—Alexander B. Grosart. 


704. Love—Winning 

Some people are unkind because 
they are selfish, some because they 
are ignorant, and others because 
they are thoughtless and lack imagin- 
ation. Jesus was always interested 
in people. Little children, the beg- 
gar, the sick man, the woman at 
the well, all found a friend in him. 
It is always refreshing to meet one 
who has caught the kindly spirit of 


Jesus. 

Recently died a man known as 
“The Sky Pilot of the Lumber 
Jacks.” Thousands all ‘over the 


country heard him speak, saw his 


os 


244 


genial smile and felt his cordial 
hand-clasp. He gave his life to 
preaching the Gospel to the men in 
the lumber camps and to organizing 
work for their welfare. Frank Hig- 
gins loved men, no matter how 
rough or uncouth their exterior 
might be. So big and ruddy look- 
ing was Mr. Higgins that few re- 
alized how literally he was laying 
down his life for others. The dread 
disease which carried him away was 
working at the very place where the 
strap of his pack basket, loaded with 
reading matter for the men, had 
burned itself into his body. 

On what proved to be Higgins’ 
last speaking trip he had become so 
weakened that it was necessary to 
call the assistance of a porter. 

“T’ll have to lean on you, brother,” 
said Higgins as the colored man 
took his grip, “for I’m nearly all 
in,” and he placed his arms across 
the porter’s shoulders. 

At the train Higgins took out his 
pocketbook and offered a coin. 

“IT couldn’t take your money, 
mister,” said the porter; “no, sir, 
I just couldn’t.” 

“Why not?” asked Higgins. 

“Why, mister, you called me 
brother, an’ you asked ‘bout my wife 
an’ children an’ mother. I just 
couldn’t take your money.” 

It was this kind of love for men 
because they were men that won 
Higgins’ way to the hearts of those 
among whom he worked. 

One lumber jack whom Higgins 
had helped to a better life said: “I 
would lay down my life for Frank 
Higgins. I love that man.” 


705. Love—Winning Power of 


A little fellow, four years old, was 
brought from the slums to a Chicago 
orphan home. This is how the Life- 
Boat tells the story: 

When he was brought up to be 
put in bed, had his bath, and the 
matron opened up the sweet little 
cot to put him between clean white 


LOVE 


sheets, he looked on in amazement. 
He said, “Do you want me to get 
in there?” “Yes,’ “What for?” 
“Why, you are going to sleep there.” 
He was amazed beyond description. 
The idea of going to sleep in such a 
place as that—he did not know what 
to make of it. He had never slept 
in a bed in his life before, never. 

He was put to bed, and the matron 
kissed him good night—a little bit — 
of a chap, only four years old, and 
he put up his hand rubbed off the 
kiss. He said, “What did you do 
that for?” But the next morning he 
said, “Would you mind doing that 
again?—What you did to me last 
night?” He never had been kissed 
before and did not know anything 
about it. 

It was only about a week later, the 
matron said, that the little fellow 
would come around three or four 
times a day and look up with a soft 
look in his face and say, “Would 
you love a fellow a little?” 

After a few weeks a lady came to 
get a child, and was looking for a 
boy, so the matron brought along 
this little chap, and the lady looked 
at him. She said, “Tommy, wouldn’t 
you like to go home with me?” He 
looked right down at the floor. She 
said, “I will give you a hobby-horse 
and lots of playthings, and you will 
have a real nice time, and I will give 
you lots of nice things to do.” He 
looked right straight at the floor,— 
did not pay any attenion to it at all. 
She kept talking, persuading him, 
and bye and bye the little fellow 
looked up into her face and said, 
“Would you love a fellow?” I want 
to tell you, my friends, there is a 
tremendous pathos in that. 


706. Love—Wonderful 


A repulsive looking old woman 
who after a life of unbelief had 
been converted, became the subject 
of persecution at the hands of her 
godless neighbors. In every way 
they sought to anger or otherwise 


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disturb the spirit of patience and 
loving kindness that now possessed 
her. Finally an old persecutor hav- 
ing exhausted all her resources in 
the attempt, venomously exclaimed 
“T think you’re the ugliest old 
woman that I ever saw.” To which 
the old woman, her face beaming 
with a light that made her beautiful, 
replied in tears, “Wasn’t it wonder- 
ful that He could have loved an 
ugly old woman like me?” 


707. Love’s Quest 

An American bishop related the 
following story. A youth belonging 
to a Bible class thought fit to dis- 
continue his attendance. The class 
assembled, but his place was empty, 
and the leader looked for the 
familiar face in vain. He could not 
be content to conduct the Bible read- 
ing as usual, ignorant as to the con- 
dition and whereabouts of the 
missing one. “Friends,” said he, 
“read, sing, and pray; my work is 
to seek and find a stray sheep,” and 
he started off on the quest. “The 
stray sheep is before you,” said the 
bishop to his hearer; “my teacher 
found me, and I could not resist his 
pleading. I could not continue to 
wander and stray while I was 
sought so tenderly.” 


708. Love’s Service 

Bishop William A. Quayle, in a 
devotional address at the Methodist 
General Conference in Des Moines, 
an address of rare spiritual beauty 
and power, uttered these illumina- 
ting sentences: “What is celestial 
service? Loving. A woman was 
sitting beside her sick husband. She 
was looking at him as he lay upon 
his bed, and he said in his feeble 
voice, ‘What are you doing?’ She 
said, ‘Just loving you. When God 
looks at us and says, ‘What are you 
doing, folks?’ please God, our 
answer shall be, ‘Just loving you.’ 
That is service.” In these material- 
istic days, so full of bustle and 


245 


hustle and push, let us never forget 
the priceless value of cultivating the 
habit of ‘just loving’ our Heavenly 
Father.” 


709. Service of Love 


Several influential citizens of 
Long Island declared yesterday that 
they would commend Patrolman Bar- 
ney Kearney of the Hunters Point 
Police Station to Commissioner En- 
right, after they had seen the patrol- 
man save the life of a shaggy little 
dog on the Diagonal Street viaduct 
over the tracks of the Long Island 
Railroad in Long Island City yes- 
terday afternoon. 

The little dog became bewildered 
from the heavy traffic coming from 
the Queensboro bridge and was first 
struck by a truck and hurled to one 
side and then run over by a pas- 
senger automobile. This latter auto- 
mobile passed over his front legs 
making them useless. 

The dog lay on the floor of the 
viaduct pawing helplessly with his 
hind feet when Patrolman Kearney 
passed on a motorcycle, stopped and 
bandaged the dog’s injuries with his 
handkerchief, while the dog licked 
his hands in gratitude. He carried 
the little dog to a watchman’s 


.shanty, laid him on a blanket and 


telephoned for the Society for the 
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 

“Why don’t you shoot him?” said 
one gruff onlooker. 

“Would I shoot you if you were 
run over?” asked Kearney. 

The approval of the crowd for 
this reply caused the man im- 
mediately to disappear—The New 
York Times. 


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710. Character—Sterling 
President Rufus C. Burleson, of 
Baylor University, once said, “How 
often I have heard my father paint 
in glowing words the honesty of his 


246 


old friend Col. Ben Sherrod. When 
he was threatened with Bankruptcy 
and penury in old age—and was 
staggering under a debt of $850,000, 
a contemptible lawyer said, 
Sherrod, you are hopelessly ruined, 
but if you will furnish me $5,000 as 
witness fees, I can pick a technical 
flaw in the whole thing, and get you 
out of it. The grand old Ala- 
bamian said, ‘Your proposition is 
insulting. I signed the notes in 
good faith, and the last dollar shall 
be paid if charity digs my grave and 
buys my shroud.’ He carried me 
and my _ brother Richard, ‘once 
especially to see that incorruptible 
old man, and his face and words 
are portrayed upon my heart and 
brain.” 


711. Character—Faulty 


A gentleman at the head of a 
metropolitan wholesale establishment 
was taking a train in the New York 
subway not long since. Just ahead 
of him he noticed a man, a merchant 
in a small city up the State, who was 
one of the regular customers of his 
house. He was about to call to the 
man, when he saw the latter push 
himself into the midst of the crowd 
and deliberately slip past the gate- 
man without paying. $4 

When the wholesale merchant 
reached his place of business, he im- 
mediately called the credit man of 
the house into his private office. 

“Mr. Dean.” he said, “how much 
does Blank & Blank of Bayton owe 
the house?” 

“T do not know just the amount,” 
was the answer, “but it is quite a 
bill.” 

“Collect it, and do not extend 
more credit,’ said the merchant. 

“But I’ve always thought them 
gilt-edged,” suggested the credit 
man. 

“So have I,” replied the employer. 
“But I’ve changed my mind.” He 
then recounted the incident he had 
witnessed in the subway, and added: 


‘Col.: 


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“A man who is building that kind 
of character is not building to last.” 

And the merchant was right. One 
year later the firm of Blank & Blank 
went down with a crash, carrying 
a score of trusting creditors with 
them to ruin. 


712. Charity—Christian 


There had been a dispute about a 
line fence. The dispute had grown 
into a quarrel and a lawsuit. Then 
Farmer Brown sold his farm to a 
lawyer from the city. He had heard 
about the quarrel and soon he 
walked out to see the _ fence. 
Farmer Smith came out to interview 
the newcomer. After greetings, he 
began on the topic of the fence and 
his claims. 

“Where do you think the fence 
ought to be?” asked the new owner. 
“That fence is a full foot over on 
my side,” said Farmer Smith. In 
reply the lawyer indicated a line two 
feet from the fence on his side. 

“Now, said he, “you put that 
fence along that line.” 

“But,” said the farmer, “that is 
more than I claim?” 

“Yes,” replied the lawyer, “but I 
would rather have peace with my 
neighbors than two feet of earth.” 

“Well, well,” stammered the sur- 
prised farmer, “that won’t do! That 
fence won’t be moved at all, squire!” 

And the lawsuit was withdrawn 
and the neighbors lived in peace. 


713. Charity—Display of 

It is related of Father Taylor, the 
sailor missionary of Boston, that on 
one occasion, when a minister was 
urging that the names of the sub- 
scribers to an institution (it was the 
missionary cause) should be pub- 
lished, in order to increase the funds, 
and quoted the account of the poor 
widow and her two mites, to justify 
this trumpet-sounding, he settled the 
question by rising from his seat, and 
asking in his clear, shrill voice, 
“Will the speaker please give us the 


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name of that poor widow ?”—Chris- 
tian Age. 


714. Christians—Hoarding 

“The other day I was at a beauti- 
ful little place called Rhosilly, down 
on the Gower Peninsula,” said the 
Rev. Harrington C. Lees, “and I was 
looking about, as I always do in an 
old church, to see what interesting 
things I could find. In the belfry 
vestry I found a ship’s bell hanging, 
and I looked at it, I tapped it, and 
it was dead and dull, and I looked 
and the whole bottom of the bell 
was plugged with a disk of wood 
right up; and then in the side of 
the bell they had cut a door, and 
there was a hinge and a padlock. 
They were using that old ship’s bell 
for a strong-box. Very useful, but 
it was not what the bell was made 
for. Christians are made by the 
Lord to be bells, to sound out the 
notes of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 
and tell what they are. But many 
such are just strong-boxes, and you 
cannot get any sound out of them. 
They take all in and they give 
nothing out, and they pride them- 
selves on being saints.”—Christian 
Herald. 


715. Collection—Fear of 


The following is one of Roose- 
velt’s favorite stories. When he 
was police commissioner of New 
York he was examining an Irish ap- 
plicant for the police force, and 
asked, “Well, if a mob were together 
and you were ordered to disperse it, 
what would you do?” “Begorra,” 


replied Pat, promptly, “I’d pass 
around the hat for a _ collection, 
ar.” 


716. Conversion and Restitution 

An incident is told by Rey. A. S. 
Burrows, of two infidel neighbors 
who lived among the hills of New 
England. One of them heard the 
gospel, and was converted. Soon 
after he went to his infidel neighbor 


247 


and said, “I have come to talk to 
you, and want to tell you I have 
been converted.” “Yes,” sneered 
the other, “I heard you had been 
down to the meeting and had gone 
forward for prayers. I was. sur- 
prised, for I thought you. were as 
sensible a man as any in town.” 
“Well,” said the first, “I have a 
duty to do to you. I haven’t slept 
much for two nights for thinking 
of it. I have four sheep in my 
flock that belong to you. They came 
two years ago with your marks on 
them. I took them and put my own 
mark on them. They are in my 
field now, with their increase, and 
I want to settle with you if you are 
willing, or you can settle with me by 
the law if you like.’ The neighbor 
was amazed, and told him he could 
keep the sheep, only to please go 
away. He felt something had got 
hold of his friend which he did not 
understand. “You may keep the 
sheep if only you will go away.” 
“No,” said the Christian, “I must 
settle this matter; I cannot rest until 
I do. You must tell me how much.” 
“Well,” he replied, “pay me the 
worth of the sheep when they went 
to you, and add six per cent in- 
terest and please go away and let me 
alone.” It was paid. No one can 
tell the entire result of that act of 
confession and restitution. But the 
other infidel is now going to the 
house of God. 


717. Gift—Costly 

Said a chaplain to a wounded 
English soldier boy who was about 
to leave the hospital, “Well, you 
have been hurt.” “Yes, sir; but 
thank God, I am alive. I am going 
home without my right hand, but 
my mother will be glad to have what 
is left of me.” “Yes, I’m sure of 
that,” answered the chaplain. “Shall 
I write to her for you, as you have 
lost your right hand?” He looked 
up at the chaplain quickly and said, 
“T did not lose it, sir; I gave it.” 


248 


718. Gift—Doubling 


Mr. Thornton, of Clapham, Eng- 
land, was a noble hearted Christian 
merchant. One morning when he 
received news of a failure that in- 
volved him in a loss of no less than 
one hundred thousand dollars, a 
minister from the country called at 
his place of business to collect a 
subscription for a very important re- 
ligious object. Learning of the 
failure, and of Mr. Thornton’s loss, 
he apologized for calling, but the 
Christian merchant took him kindly 
by the hand and said: 

“My dear sir, the wealth I have 
is not mine, but the Lord’s, and may- 
be he is going to take it out of my 
hands and give it to someone else, 
and if this is true, this is a very 
good reason why I should make 
good use of all that is left.” 

He then astonished the minister 
by doubling the subscription he had 
previously made. 


719. Gift—The Best 


Mr. Bowman, in an article in the 
“Missionary Review of the World.” 
tells the story of a Hindu woman 
who was walking along the banks 
of the Ganges; and as she walked 
along, she had by her side a little 
boy some three or four years of age, 
and in her arms she had. a little 
baby girl, wailing little thing. An 
English officer passed that way and 
spoke to her, because there was 
agony written in that woman’s face. 
He said, “What is wrong?” She re- 
plied, “The gods are angry with me; 
they have given me this little baby 
girl.” He passed on, but he came 
back, drawn, I suppose, by the agony 
in that woman’s face. The woman 
was there; the baby girl was there; 
but the boy was not there—the 
sturdy, strong little fellow of three or 
four years. And this officer knew 
what had happened. The boy had 
been thrown into the river, and he 
said to her, “Why did you throw the 


MONEY 


boy in?” She answered, “Could I 
give less than my best to my god?” 
Friends, that was a heathen woman. 
The story shows us the possible 
power in that woman’s life if she 
really knew God. She thought a 
god was something cruel, one who 
was tyrannical, who demanded for 
no reason the sacrifice of her best 
loved one. And we who know God 
to be so true, so loving, so careful, 
so tender—can we withhold our very 
best from him, be it the life of some 
loved one, or our own life? All 
that we have or hope to be, let us 
give in absolute abandonment to the 
service of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Surely, surely, the restless millions 
await that light, whose dawning 
maketh all things new, and Christ 
also waits. Have we done what we 
could? 


720. Gifts—Royal 


A Christmas treat was to be given 
to some poor children at a mission 
hall in Edinburgh, and hundreds of 
little ones were assembled at the 
doors in advance of the hour of ad- 
mittance. Among them was a little 
girl, thinly clad, and barefoot, on the 
cold, hard stones. She danced from 
foot to foot, but strove in vain to 
keep the biting, stinging chill out of 
her limbs. A boy who stood by 
watched her pityingly for a few 
minutes, and then snatched off his 
cap and dropped it on the stones. 
“There, lassie, “he cried; “ye may 
stand on that.” 

It was the Christ spirit in that 
poor boy’s heart that prompted the 
loving deed and word. In all the 
city of Edinburgh there was no 
more royal gift made that Christmas 
day—measuring the gift by the good 
will of which it sprang—than that 
benefaction of the street boy to his 
little sister in want. 

What a long sweet day of Love’s 
sunshine Christmas would be if 
every heart in this world would 
give out of its native abundance 


MONEY 


good will, cheerfulness, gentleness, 
courtesy, sympathy, little deeds of 
loving service, smiles of kindness, 
and words of comfort!—J. R. 
Miller. 


gzt. Gifts—Withholding 


“For so hath the Lord commanded 
us, saying I have set thee for a 
light of the Gentiles, That thou 
shouldest be for salvation unto the 
uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 
oy EP Ve 

Whose fault is it that there are 
any “poor heathen”? If your father 
left in his will an inheritance for you 
and your brother, and your brother 
being at a distance could only re- 
ceive his inheritance if you sent it 
to him, would you feel free to de- 
cide whether to send it to him or 
notr And if you did send it to 
him, would you take considerable 
credit to yourself for doing so? 
That’s foreign missions. Peopie 
talk complacently about the “poor 
heathen.” Why “poor”? Because 
the heathen have not received their 
share of the inheritance which the 
Father left us to give them. What 
shall we do about it? 


g22z. Giver—The True 


At the feet of a medical mis- 
sionary a grateful father and mother 
knelt to worship her as a god, for 
she had restored their child to 
health. Hastily the miissionary 
cried out to them, “We are not gods. 
Worship the true God.” “You must 
be a god,” they said. “No one but 
a god could have saved our beloved 
child from death.” “Suppose,” said 
the missionary, “that I wished to 
bestow a valuable gift upon you and 
sent it by the hand of one of my 
coolies, whom would you thank, the 
coolie or myself?” “We should 
thank you, of course; the coolie is 
your servant.” “And so am I God’s 
coolie, by whose hand God has been 
pleased to send you this gift of heal- 


249 


ing; and it is to him you must bow 
and give thanks.” 


723. Givers—Three Kinds 


There are three kinds of givers— 
the flint, the sponge and the honey- 
comb. It takes a blow of steel to 
get anything out of a flint, and then 
it is often a vicious snap. The 
sponge must be squeezed, and even 
then will not yield all it has ob- 
sorbed. The honeycomb is but the 
frail cover for a store of sweetness, 
and for the smallest puncture, it 
yields its sweetness. 


724. Giving 

It has been said that “many littles 
makes a muckle.” A single bee does 
not collect more than one teaspoon- 
ful of honey in a season. Yet in a 
single hive there is often found as 
much as eighty pounds. We should 
not refuse to give for the cause of 
Christ because we cannot give large 
sums. The teaching of the bee is 
that every one should give. The 
united littles of God’s poor ones 
will be enough to please Him. But 
don’t forget that the bee gives its 
very life to do that littl. “The 
Lord loveth a cheerful giver.” (2 
Cor. 9. 7).—James Smith. 


725. Giving to Christ 

A pastor was taking a missionary 
collection recently when he said, “I 
want each of you to give to-day as 
though you were putting your money 
right into the pierced hand of Jesus 
Christ.” A lady came up afterward, 
and said, “I was going to give a 
half-dollar, but I did not do so.” 

“Why did you not do it?” the 
preacher asked. “Do you think I 
would put a half-dollar into his 
pierced hand? I have ten dollars at 
home, and I am going to give that.” 
If we were putting our money into 
the pierced hand of our Lord our 
contributions would amount to mil- 
lions, and the world would be 
evangelized in ten years. 


250 


726. Giving—Constant 


The Bishop of Nelson (New Zea- 
land), at a recent meeting, told of 
two men who met recently, and one 
asked the other for a subscription 
for his church. The reply was that 
the Church was always wanting 
money. The other friend said, 
“When my lad was a boy, he was 
costly; he always wanted boots and 
shoes, stockings and clothes, and 
wore them out fast, and the older 
and stronger he grew the more 
money had to be spent on him, but 
he died, and does not now cost me 
a shilling.” “Yes,” said the bishop, 
“a live Church always wants money.” 


727. Giving—Forced 

Church officers who are beginning 
to consider budget plans for the 
ecclesiastical year, will appreciate 


the story recently heard of a farmer 
and his 


cow: “Does your cow 
voluntarily give milk?” asked a 
summer boarder. “Well,” replied 


the farmer, “I just can’t say how 
voluntary it is. If we can get her 
headed into a corner, and tie her 
there while an active, able bodied 
man gets hold of her, she'll yield 
up considerable.” 


728. Giving—God’s 

Years ago, an English judge in 
India became interested in the native 
Christians. 

By and by he heard that a cer- 
tain rich native, the owner of an 
indigo farm, had confessed Christ, 
and was cast out of his home and 
deprived of all of his possessions. 

“Let him come to me,” said the 
judge, “and if he is a true Christian 
he will not mind working. He shall 
be attendant-bearer of my little 
son.” 

So Norbudur came and humbly 
took his place as a servant in the 
household. 

Every evening after dinner, the 
judge had the whole household 


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assembled to prayers, and he would 
read to them in their own language, 
from the New Testament. One 
evening he came to the verse: “Every 
one that hath forsaken houses or 
brethren—or wife, or children, or 
lands, for my name’s sake, shall re- 
ceive an hundred fold.” 

The judge paused and said: 

“Now, none of us have left houses 
and lands and wife and children for 
Christ’s sake—except one. Nor- 
burdur,” and he looked at the bearer, 
“will you tell us? Is it true what 
this verse says?” 

Quietly Norbudur rose, took up 
the Mahratti Testament, and read 
the verse through. 

Then he raised his head and spoke: 

“He says he gives a hundredfold 
I know he gives a thousandfold.” 
—Unknown. 


729. Giving—God’s Plan 

A Des Moines man who was con- 
verted in one of Billy Sunday’s 
meetings was assessed for current 
expenses by the church with which 
he united the sum of $12.50 for the 
year. When informed of the matter 
he protested at the smallness of the 
sum. “For,” said he, “I used tom 
spend more than that for a single 
night’s pleasure.” He and his wife 
began to read the Bible to ascertain 
what it taught about giving and the 
result was that during the first six 
months of the year he had given 
27 times $12.50, or $337.50, and has — 
never since given less than that. 
The book of Malachi settled the 
basis of his giving. 


730. Giving—Incense of 


There is a woman who has been 
over the washtub hour after hour, — 
day after day. At the end of the © 
week, when the blessed Sabbath 
comes, she enters the House of! — 
God. It may be only ten dollars, it 
may be less, that she has been able 
to win out of the soiled world that 


MONEY 


way, but if it has been in her heart 
every day and every hour that the 
next Sunday morning in the house 
of worship, with its quiet, with its 
beauty, with its sweet music, with its 
hush of the Divine presence, she is 
to lay ten cents of every dollar on 
God’s altar for humanity, her work 
—every bit of it—is made divine. 
Even the ill-smelling, hot suds offer 
up incense.—Dr. L. C. Barnes. 


731. Giving—Joy in 

People are interested in the things 
to which they give their money, 
strength or time. Frequently in- 
terest is aroused when a gift of some 
sort, however, small, is made. The 
gift may be made as a matter of 
duty, but the interest aroused will 
lead us to make another gift as a 
matter of joy. 

With much work and sacrifice, a 
little church had been built on a 
mission field, but when a bell was 
needed, one woman, whose aid had 
been sought in vain, declared her 
belief that bells were a nuisance. 
Finally she was persuaded to con- 
tribute five dollars, and when the 
bell had been purchased and swung, 
she was greatly pleased. 

“That’s the sweetest toned bell I 
ever heard!” she said. 


732. Giving—Lukewarm 


Spurgeon once related the following 
incident. A negro had become con- 
vinced through hearing an address by 
a missionary, that it was his duty to 
give the tenth of his increase to the 
Lord. So he divided his fields into 
ten parts and planted corn, potatoes, 
etc., in one tenth for the Lord, but 
he took no care of it further on. 
When people passed by they usually 
expressed surprise, that nine-tenths 
of the field was in perfect condition 
and one tenth entirely neglected. 
Then Zachariah was wont to ex- 
plain: “That is the Lord’s part.” 

So, said Spurgeon, many do. 


251 


Their own affairs are attended to 
with scrupulous care, their whole 
being is forced into action therein, 
but in their work for the Lord they 
are lukewarm and do as Zachariah 
did with his field. 


733. Giving—Open Handed 


In the charge which Paul would 
have Timothy give to his rich 
parishioners, he advises that “they 
be ready to distribute,” evidently 
goods or coins to their poorer 
neighbors. Moffatt and Weymouth 
translate it “open handed.” But one 
commentator says that the Greek 
word implies “glad to see the col- 
lector.” 


734. Giving—Reward of 


Walking on a hot day along a 
country road, I met a man and 
asked him if he knew where I could 
get a drink of water. He took me 
down a little path by the roadway 
and showed me a beautiful spring 
under overhanging foliage. Down 
at the bottom you could see white 
sand boiling up just as if the water 
were hot instead of icy cold. After 
I drank the man said: “We were 
settled on this land for some years 
before we discovered the spring, and 
the great need here was for good 
water. One day, passing through 
this wood, I noticed that the leaves 
were damp. Stooping down I 
scraped them aside with my hands, 
and there was just a little pool of 
very cold water. Then I took away 
more leaves and sand, and I had a 
little basin of beautiful water. We 
first made up our minds to keep 
it to ourselves and say nothing about 
it, because we thought if the neigh- 
bors found it, there would not be 
enough for us and for them. But 
after a while the neighbors did find 
it out, and they too came to draw 
water from the spring. We were 
a little afraid, but we did not say 
anything. And then we found out 


252 


that the more the neighbors came 
there to draw water from the spring, 
the more water there was for us.” 
There is that scattereth and in- 
creaseth yet the more—Record of 
Christian Work. 


735. Giving—Royal 

The story is told of a poor blind 
woman in Paris who put twenty- 
seven francs into the plate at a 
missionary meeting. A friend 
remonstrated: “You cannot afford 
so much out of your small earnings.” 
“Oh, yes, I can,’ she answered: 
“T’ve figured it out and know just 
what I can afford to give.” When 
asked to explain, she said: “I am 
blind, and I said to my fellow straw- 
workers, ‘How much money do you 
spend in a year for oil in your 
lamps when it is too dark to work 
at nights?’ They replied, “ITwenty- 
seven francs.’ So,” said the poor 
woman, “I found that I saved so 
much in the year because I am 
blind and do not need a lamp; and 
I give it to send light to the dark 
heathen lands.” 


736. Giving—Sacrificial 

I have a dear friend, the editor of 
one of the great religious journals 
of our country, and he has an only 
daughter,—a most beautiful and 
brilliant young woman. She has 
every grace of body and every charm 
of mind. I have noticed in recent 
times that I never meet this friend 
without finding, soon or late, a little 
pensive element coming into the con- 
versation, and that always he men- 
tions, in some connection, the fact 
that Margaret is soon to be married 
and that she is marrying a mis- 
sionary—a splendid stalwart youth 
who served his country with heroism 
in the great war, and who is now 
going to China to serve Jesus as a 
soldier of the Cross,—and that he 
is to take this dear girl from my 
friend’s home with him across those 
distant seas 


MONEY 


The last time that I was with 
this friend, once more the conversa- 
tion came around to this matter 
which is upon his heart, and he said 
to me: “I heard the other day an 
incident that greatly interested me. 
A rich man was down on the water- 
front watching the departure of a 
great ocean liner. He was walking 
up and down the dock with rather 
a complacent air. He was joined 
by an acquaintance, who said to him, 
“You seem to be much pleased about 
something.’ ‘Yes,’ said the rich man, 
‘I do feel unusually good to-day. Do 
you see that vessel just dropping 
out into the North River? Well, I 
have on that vessel, $10,000 worth 
of equipment for a hospital in China. 
I made that gift at the instance of 
a missionary friend. I am greatly 
pleased that I had the privilege of 
doing that, and I just came down 
to see the vessel safely off” And 
then the friend said to him, 
‘Well, that is interesting, and I am 
glad you made the gift! But, he 
said, ‘you know I also have a gift 
on that ship. My daughter is on 
the vessel, going to China as a 
foreign missionary. And the rich 
man stopped and looked swiftly into 
his friend’s eyes and then exclaimed, 
‘My God, man! I haven’t given 
anything, have I?’”—-From the Gar- 
dens of Life. 


737. Giving—Voluntary 


One of the most convincing evi- 
dences of the divine origin and 
guidance of the Church of Christ 
is the fact that it is supported by 
voluntary offerings. Not an amuse- 
ment or a business on earth could 
run that way.—Christian Advocate. 


738. God—Fag End to 


An Egyptian missionary, Mrs. 
Harvey, tells about a rich American 
lady who spent a winter at Shep- 
herds Hotel in Cairo, where she had 
to pay six or eight dollars a day, 


MONEY 253 


and who visited her several times, 
expressing a great interest in mis- 
sions. When the lady was leaving 
the mission for the last time she said 
to the missionary, “I do want to do 
something for the great cause,” and 
pressed a silver quarter into Mrs. 
Harvey’s hand. Which reminds one 
of a remark that Sam Jones once 
made: “About the only Easter 
song that a good many women can 
sing is: 
‘Must Jesus bear the cross alone 
And all the world go free? 
No, there’s a cross for everyone 
But an Easter bonnet for me.’” 


739. God—Robbing 


United States Senator Vardeman, 
so the story goes, once rented a 
plot of several acres to one of his 
black neighbors. The land was to 
be planted in corn, and the senator, 
then ex-governor, was to receive 
one-fourth. The corn was duly 
harvested, but the senator did not 
‘receive his fourth. Meeting the 
negro one day he said: “Look here, 
Sam, have you harvested your 
corn?” “Yes, sah, boss, long ago.” 
“Well, wasn’t I to get a fourth?” 
“Yes, sah; boss, dat’s de truf, but 
dar wasn’t no fo’th. Dar wuz jes’ 
three loads an’ dey was. mine.” 
There are some white people who 
treat the Lord in the same fashion. 
—Baptist Standard. 


740. Gold and God 


Just before I went to Brazil I 
was the guest of the President of 
the Argentine Republic. After 
lunching one day we sat in his sun 
parlor looking out over the river. 
He was very thoughtful. He said, 
“Mr. Babson, I have been wonder- 
ing why it is that South America 
with all its great natural advantages 
is so far behind North America, not- 
withstanding that South America 
was settled before North America.” 


Then he went on to tell how the 
forests of South America had two 
hundred and eighty-six trees that 
can be found in no book of botany. 
He told me of many ranches that had 
thousands of acres under alfalfa in 
one block. He mentioned the mines 
of iron, copper, coal, silver, gold; 
all those rivers and great waterfalls 
which rival Niagara. “Why is it, 
with all these natural resources, 
South America is so far behind 
North America?” he asked. Well, 
those of you who have been there 
know the reason. But, being a 
guest, I said: “Mr. President, what 
do you think is the reason?” He 
replied, “I have come to this con- 
clusion. South America was settled 
by the Spanish who came to South 
America in search of gold, but North 
America was settled by the Pilgrim 
Fathers,who went there in search 
of God.”—From Fundamentals of 
Prosperity. 


741. Gold—Better Than 


Yonder a little girl is sobbing 
piteously on the grave of her 
mother! I am touched, and offer 
her a gold piece! She snatches it 
from my hand, flings it into the 
open grave, and continues to sob 
convulsively! What more can I do? 
That is all that I had to give, and 
it was unavailing! Presently a poor 
woman, in plain and shabby clothes, 
kisses the child, strokes the little 
head, presses her to her bosom, and 
comforts her with gentle crooning! 
See the eyes droop in sleep, and the 
little one is soothed and quieted! 
That woman had neither silver nor 
gold, but she possessed what was in- 
finitely more precious, and that she 
gave without stint. This is what 
the world needs today. Would that 
men and women of all classes in 
society realized it, and instead of 
the giddy race for wealth and 
pleasure, would possess themselves 
of, and impart to others, treasures 
compared with which the mines of 


254 


Croesus offer a miser’s dole.—F. B. 
Meyer. 


742. Gold—Honor Above 


At the new Olympic games in 
Athens a few years ago, the long 
distance race from Marathon to 
Athens was won by Loues Spiridon, 
a Greek peasant. His reception in 
the stadium was a scene of wild 
enthusiasm. 

And what was the temper of this 
Greek peasant to whom all, from 
the king down, made obeisance? He 
was a poor man who had to live 
most economically to live at all. 
They offered him twenty-five thou- 
sand francs in gol d—twenty-five 
thousand francs in a country where 
a stout laborer earns less than two 
francs a day. He refused it. To 
sustain the honor of Hellas was 
enough to Loues Spiridon, he said, 
and only asked that he be given a 
water privilege in his native town 
of Maroussi, that he be allowed 
every morning to fill his goatskins in 
Athens, and drive his little team to 
his own little village and there sell 
such of the water as his own people 
might care to buy from him. The 
money? They set it aside for the 
physical training of the boys of 
Loues’ village—J. B. Connolly. 


743. Greed—Fatal 


When Cortez and his companions 
were obliged to flee from Mexico 
on that fearful night when the Az- 
tecs entered the city, Cortez warned 
his soldiers against taking too much 
gold with them, for each soldier 
must fight his way through the 
enemies’ host. “He travels safest 
in the night who travels lightest.” 
said Cortez. It was hard to heed 
this advice, for they had ac- 
cumulated a vast amount of gold, 
but the more prudent ones did, and 
escaped unharmed. Some, however, 
who bound heavy chains of gold 
about their necks and_ shoulders, 
staggered under their burden of 


MONEY 


gold, and attempting to escape, be- 
came a prey to their enemies. It is 
ever so with the greedy soul. 


744. Greed—Whip of 
Some of you may have read 


Tolstoy’s fable, “How Much Land 


Does a Man Require?” In _ that 
striking story a Russian peasant is 
smitten with greed of land. Un- 
able to obtain as much as he wishes 
from his old landlord, he seeks a 
new one, who in a freakish mood 
tells him he can have as much land 
for his money as he can walk round 
before sunset. The peasant joyfully 
agrees, and the owner lays his cap 
on a knoll and bids him walk around 
in a circle and return to the cap be- 
fore the sun sinks. At first our 
gratified peasant walks leisurely, but 
presently he sees a desirable bit of 
land, the very patch for corn, and 
widens his circle to include it. A 
little further on he spies a piece that 
cries out for a potato crop, and in- 
creases his pace to include that also. 
Another splendid piece of land 
comes to his view and another, and 
yet another. To include them all 
he must run, and run he does; first 
slowly, then with all his might. At 
last he thinks he has enough, and 
notes with apprehension that the sun 
is very low in the sky, and the cap 
not yet in sight. He tries to in- 
crease his pace, but his feet are torn 
and bleeding, his head aches, his 
lungs work like a blacksmith’s bel- 
lows, his veins are tense and swollen, 
his heart thumps like an iron ham- 
mer against his ribs. Still he makes 
an effort, and at last the cap is in 
sight. He is all but spent, every 
sinew is strained to snapping point, 
his head swims, there is a red mist 
before his eyes. But suddenly the 
loud cheering of the spectators 
bursts upon the humming ears, and 
with superhuman efforts he reaches 
the cap. As he reaches it he falls 
down dead, the sun goes down, and 
he lies dead. 


MONEY 


This is not an old story. It hap- 
pens every day. Men still drop dead 
in the cruel race in which greed 
holds the whip. Any doctor will 
confirm this, if you ask him. But 
the death of the soul comes first. 
When, do you think, did our pea- 
sant really die the only death that 
matters? Was it at the end of the 
race, when he sank down beside 
his prize? Was it during the race, 
or even at the beginning? In the 
deepest sense he was dead when he 
started—only a dead soul could run 
in such a race-——-E. Hermann. 


745. Heathen—Giving for 


One Sunday, when the collection 
was for foreign missions, the col- 
lection bag was taken to Mr. Dives, 
who shook his head and whispered, 
“T never give to missions.” “Then 
take something out of the bag,” the 
elder whispered inreply. “The money 
is for the heathen.”—Presbyterian. 


746. Honest—Paid to be 


They tell in Chicago an amusing 
story (I believe it is well authen- 
ticated) of a foreigner who started 
in business with the deliberate in- 
tention of being dishonest. He had 
been a trcky peddler, a manipulator 
of various flimsy games for fleecing 
farmers and he had now worked out 
a scheme to get goods on a ninety- 
day-credit plan, his idea being to 
sell all that he could in a temporary 
shop before his bills fell due and 
then depart ingloriously on the 
eighty-ninth day, leaving his 
creditors to worry. 

But he did so well that towards 
the end of the third month he de- 
cided to repeat the experiment— 
that is, to pay what he owed and 
stock up again for another ninety 
days, not abandoning his crooked 
plan, however, but postponing it to 
the end of the second period. 

Again his business prospered so 
that he really could not afford to 
be dishonest, and once more he paid 


255 


his bills. This went on for a year 
or two and gradually, to his great 
astonishment, this man found him- 
self launched in a successful and 
honestly conducted business. He 
had become honest in spite of him- 
self, and not only did he remain 
honest, but he developed into one of 
the foremost merchants of Chicago, 
the rich and conservative head of a 
great department store founded on 
the indisputable proposition that fair 
dealing to all is the only basis for 
business efficiency and _ success— 
Cleveland Moffett. 


747. Honesty in Business 

Frequently sharp practises are 
taken as normal in business and un- 
der the motto, “Business is business,” 
whatever is profitable is justified. 
In his autobiography Edward Bok 
tells an incident which shows that 
other ideals exist. At a time when 
the Curtis Publishing Company was 
having a financial struggle, the 
monthly pay roll was due and there 
were no funds available. The morn- 
ing mail brought a check, in five 
figures, to pay for a proposed patent 
medicine advertisement. Mr. Curtis 
was then fighting that business. 
Despite his financial need, he did 
not waver now. He merely replaced 
the check in the envelope, and said, 
“Of course we can not accept that,” 
and went to the bank and borrowed 
money for the pay roll—W. E. 
Griffin. 


748. Honor Untarnished 


When the war of the Rebellion 
left Robert E. Lee a poor man the 
Louisiana Lottery offered him ten 
thousand dollars a year simply for 
the use of his name, and he said, 
“My name is all that I have left and 
that is not for sale.” And the 
mothers of generations yet un- 
numbered will take their children 
on their knee and tell them the 
story of brave General Lee; a man 
not afraid of shot or shell, but 


256 


better than this, the fearless cham- 
pion of his own conviction of the 
truth as he saw it in the fear of 
God. 


749. Inheritance 


An Eastern sheriff has just re- 
ceived word that a man whom he 
took to states prison has fallen heir 
to $150,000. At the end of six 
years the convict will be released 
and by that time his fortune will 
have grown to $200,000. The con- 
vict was notified of his bright 
financial prospects. Every slave of 
sin is heir to eternal life if he will 
but accept it. Infinitely greater in 
value than silver and gold, its ac- 
ceptance carries with it pardon and 
freedom from the dominion of sin. 


750. Money to Be Used 

Will you tell me, in the name of 
eternal love and justice, what right 
a man has to lay up money that 
he does not. use except to roll it 
over and over, like a snowball, that 
he may make it more? Money 
possessed is to be used. It is not 
to be kept without being employed 
to some good purpose. Every mill 
must have a reservoir; but if the 
water does not run out and turn 
the wheel, the reservoir becomes 
merely a stagnant frog-pond. And 
so in respect to money: men who 
have it must spend it. The question 
for them to ask themselves is, 
“Where and how shall I spend it?” 
—H. W. Beecher. 


751. Money—Value of 


Bourke Cockran said that no man 
with $10,000,000 could be put in jail 
in this country, and that statement 
represents the estimate of the power 
of money that prevails with many 
people. Yet there are occasions 
when money is absolutely powerless. 
One of these occurred at the time 
of the wreck of the Valencia. 

Among those who are supposed to 


MONEY 


have perished when the vessel went 
to pieces was J. B. Graham. He had 
recently sold a mine in Alaska for 
$60,000, and part of the proceeds of 
this sale he carried with him in gold 
in a bag. This bag went down with 
Graham. 

Those who were rescued say that 
he made frantic efforts to induce 
others to save him, offering all his 
bag of gold; but none heeded him, 
and his precious sack lay on the 
broken deck, kicked here and there 
unnoticed and unvalued in that try- 
ing time. It was the hour when 
gold failed as it always fails when 
held beside the hope of life. 

Said one of the survivors: “I’m 
coming into a safe harbor without 
a cent. Why, even this shirt I have 
on belongs to another man, and I 
have not even a hat. But that bag 
of gold, or even that ship loaded 
with gold, would not tempt me into 
such a place again.” 


752. Ode to Gold 
Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold! 
Bright and yellow, hard and cold, 
Molten, graven, hammered and 
rolled, 
Heavy to get and light to hold; 
Hoarded, barter’d, bought and sold, 
Stolen, borrow’d, squander’d, 


Spurned by the young, but hugged — 


by the old 
To the very verge of the church 
yard mould; 
Price of many a crime untold; 
Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold! 
—Thomas Hood. 


753. Possessions—Love of 
We tie ourselves to the outward 


possessions as Alpine travellers to 
their guides, and so, when they slip 
on the icy slopes, their fall is our 


death— Maclaren. 


754. Profession and Practice 
Dr. 


Hall tells the story of a 


Scotchman who sung most piously 


the hymn— 


MONEY 


“Were the whole realm of nature 
mine, 

That were a present far too small,” 

and all through the singing was 

fumbling in his pocket to make sure 

of the smallest piece of silver for 

the contribution-box.—Christian Age. 


9755. Prosperity—Danger of 


Hannibal was the great general of 
the Carthaginians. He took into 
Italy the bravest army it had ever 
seen. At first it was successful. 
But when Capua was taken the army 
caught the infection of its luxury. 
It grew fond of pleasure. This 
made it effeminate and an easy prey 
to the foe. Prosperity is not an 
unmixed blessing. 


756. Restitution 


He (Mahomet) went out for the 
last time into the mosque, two days 
before his death; asked, “If he had 
injured any man? Let his own back 
bear the stripes. If he owed any 
man?” A voice answered, “Yes, 
me; three drachms,” borrowed on 
such an occasion. Mahomet ordered 
them to be paid. “Better be in 
shame now,” said he, “than at the 
day of Judgment.”—Carlyle. 


757. Riches in Glory 


It is the custom for travellers 
abroad to take with them letters of 
credit, good in any large city in the 
world. Such letters are customarily 
drawn for a specific amount, and the 
banker who issues them is secured 
by the prepayment of the money or 
the deposit of ample securities. 
Sometimes, however, an unlimited 
letter of credit is issued, and is made 
good simply by the name of a re- 
sponsible endorser. Such an un- 
limited letter of credit is freely of- 
fered to every needy pilgrim on 
earth on his journey heavenward. 
Here it is. “My God shall supply 
all your need, according to His 
riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”— 
Cyrus D. Foss. 


257 


758. Riches—Failure of 


A miner returned from the Klon- 
dike. He had made a fortune. He 
counted himself a millionaire. He 
had been away from home for fifteen 
years and during that time had not 
heard from his aged parents. He 
was looking forward to Christmas 
Day in the old home in Philadelphia. 
But the newspapers reported that he 
was the loneliest man in Phila- 
delphia on that Christmas day, eat- 
ing his dinner alone in one of the 
big hotels of that city. Where was 
the father whom he had hoped to 
make happy in his old age? He was 
gone. He could not wait until the 
boy had achieved the career he had 
blocked out for himself. Where was 
the mother? She had waited until 
a few months before the son’s re- 
turn when she, too, had to go. 
When the returning man lifted the 
knocker at the door of the old 
house, it fell with the harsh echo 
of empty rooms. The neighbors told 
him the story. The man _ had 
gained a fortune, but it was too 
late to do the things he had dreamed 
of doing. 


759. Riches—Fool and 


I went to see a very wealthy man 
in New York to ask him to help an 
exceedingly noble cause. His fear 
immediately answered my appeal, and 
he spoke as one who was on the 
verge of poverty. “I really cannot 
give any more. What with one 
thing and another I do not know 
what we are coming to.’ Fear 
seemed to haunt the man. It de- 
termined his thought and his speech 
and his service. A few weeks later 
he died, and his will was proved at 
over sixty millions. And I wonder. 
I wonder if at the end of the day 
he heard the message of the Lord 
saying unto him, “Thou fool, this 
night thy soul shall be required of 
thee; then whose shall these things 
be?”—H. J. Jowett. 


258 


760. Riches—Undeserved 


“I knew a boy whose father was 
so prosperous financially that he 
could afford to give him anything 
that money could buy. 
wanted a bicycle but he didn’t dare 
ask for it. Why? Because the re- 
port card from school showed 
nothing but low marks; a great pile 
of wood that he had been told to 
look after remained unstacked, and 
there were several questionable ac- 
tions with which he knew his mother 
was acquainted. Is that the reason 
we receive nothing from God—we 
do not dare ask it because of the 


hateful, unconfessed, unforsaken 
sin?” 
761. Riches—Unrealized 


Sir William Pynsent, of England, 
bequeathed his large and beautiful 
estate to the Earl of Chatham. He 
“greatly admired his unselfish de- 
votion to his country.” The country 
lawyer, whose duty it became to in- 
form Chatham of this great be- 
quest, on arriving at the Earl’s 
house, and asking to see him, was 
bluntly told by the doorkeeper: 
“His lordship does not receive every 
countryman who comes to town.” 
To which the lawyer replied: “If 
he refuses to see me, it will be the 
worst day’s work he ever did” An 
official passing by, said he would 
take a message to the Earl, but the 
lawyer could not see him. “Thave 
come all the way from Somerset- 
shire to see him,” said the lawyer, 
“and see him I must.” After several 
more refusals, his persistency was 
rewarded, but the Earl said as he 
received him: “I am so busy with 
the affairs of state that I can give 
you but three minutes.” The 
solicitor unfolded the deed that was 
to make the poor statesman rich, 
saying that the document would ex- 
plain itself. Chatham, with his 
mind on political problems, heard 
only a jumble of “aforesaid” and 


This boy 


MONEY 


“hereby” and when it was through, 
he said: ‘What has all this to do 
with me2” “Don’t you understand 
that Burton Pynsent is yours?” 
“Mine!” exclaimed the Earl; and so 
at last he was made to appreciate 
what riches had been given him in 
his friend’s last will and testament. 
Even more difficult is it for God’s 
messengers to make those absorbed 
in business and politics and pleasure, 
realize what inner riches for both 
worlds lie wunappropriated in the 
“Testament” which expresses Christ’s 
will for us.—Christian Herald. 


762. Satan’s Charity 


A certain priest was once riding 
in a street-car in New York, and in 
passing a very handsome church a 
fellow-passenger turned to him and 
said, “If these Christians would 
stop building fine churches and give 
the money to the poor, it would be 
much more to their credit.” “T’ve 
heard a similar remark before,” was 
the quiet rejoiner. “Indeed! And 
by whom, may T ask?” “Judas Is- 
cariot!” was the answer.—Sunday 
School Chronicle. 


763. Soul-Destroying Greed 

The soul is an instrument more 
grandly made than any harp that ever 
came from human hands; and God, 
who knows what are the melodies of 
heaven, has strung it. Wondrous 
are the chords thereof; and when 
men spend their life in destroying 
one and another of them, in old age 
their wandering hands go aimlessly 
through the empty spaces; and there 
is no sound there—H. W. Beecher. 


764. Steward—A Good 

A farmer went to hear John 
Wesley preach. The farmer was 
not a converted man; he cared little 
about religion; on the other hand, 
he was not what we call a bad man. 
His attention was soon excited and 


riveted. John said he should take 


MONEY 


up three topics of thought—he was 
speaking greatly about money. His 
first head was, “Get all you can.” 
The farmer nudged a neighbor and 
said, “This is strange preaching. I 
never heard the like of this before. 
This is very good. Yon man has 
got things in him; it is admirable 
preaching.” John discoursed of “In- 
dustry,” “Activity,” “Living to 
purpose,’ and reached his second 
division, which was, “Save all you 
can.” The farmer became more ex- 
cited. “Was there ever anything 
like this?” he said. Wesley de- 
nounced thriftlessness and waste, 
and he satirised the wilful wicked- 
ness which lavishes in luxury; and 
the farmer rubbed his hands, and he 
thought, “All this have I been from 
my youth up:” and what with 
getting, and what with hoarding, it 
seemed to him that “salvation had 
come to his house.” But Wesley 
advanced to his third head, which 
was, “Give all you can.” “Ay dear, 
ay dear,” said the farmer; “he has 
gone and spoilt it all’ There was 
now no further point of contact, no 
interest in the farmer’s mind.— 
Preacher’s Lantern. 


765. Treasure—Lost 

A young lady was one day visiting 
an aged man, a friend of her father, 
who had been associated with him 
in early life. The man had been one 
of those who run after the world 
and had overtaken it. All it could 
give he had obtained. Pretty soon 
he inquired the state of his friend, 
whom he knew to be in circum- 
stances of far less external comfort 
than himself. As he listened to the 
story of his less favored friend’s 
patience in suffering, of the cheerful- 
ness with which he could look for- 
ward to either life or death, the rich 
man’s conscience applied the unex- 
pressed reproach, and he exclaimed, 
“Yes, yes, you wonder why I can- 
not be as happy and quiet, too; but 
think of the difference. He is going 


259 


to his treasure, and I—I must leave 
mine.”—G. B. F. Hallock. 


766. Treasury—Jesus Beholding 

A pianist of world-wide reputation 
came to a western city. The largest 
auditoriumi was crowded. The re- 
ceipts for a single evening were 
2,750. On Sunday night there was 
a grand mass-meeting to express the 
sympathy of the Christian people in 
that city for the persecuted Ar- 
menians. A collection was taken up 
which amounted to $27.50—exactly 
one per cent of what was paid to 
hear the great pianist——a hundred 
times as much to gratify musical 
taste, and, in some instances no 
doubt, mere curiosity, as to feed the 
hungry and clothe the naked. From 
this we see how we often pay to 
Christ’s cause. Jesus beholds us cast 
our money into the treasury. One per 
cent is a “mite,” but it is not the 
“mite” that is the “all.” 


767. Word—A Cheering 


I remember when I first went 
away from home. It was _ only 
twelve miles; but I’ve never been so 
far since as that seemed to me then. 
I had left my mother and sisters for 
the first time in my life, and if I 
ever needed a kind word or a word 
of cheer, it was then. I was walk- 
ing down the street with my brother, 
who had gone there a year before; 
and as we were going along my 
brother said, pointing out an old 
gentleman, “There’s a man that will 
give you a cent. He gave me one, 
and I know he will you.” I looked 
at him. I thought he was the finest- 
looking man I ever saw. When he 
came up to us he said to my brother, 
“Why, this is a new boy in the 
town, isn’t it?” And he said, “Yes, 
sir. He’s just come.” He wanted 
him to be sure I hadn’t got the cent. 
The old man took off my hat, and 
put his trembling hand on my head, 
and said, “Well, God bless you, my 
boy! I am told your father is dead; 


260 


but you’ve got a Father in heaven.” 
He gave me a brand-new cent. I 
don’t know what has become of the 


cent; but I can feel the pressure of | 


the old man’s hand upon my head 
to-day. He gave me what I wanted 
so much—a kind and cheering word. 
—Moody. 


9768. Worship—Hero 


A missionary returned to his home 
city, where, as elsewhere also, he 
announced a collection for foreign 
missions. A good friend said to 
him: “Very well, Andrew, seeing it’s 
you, I’ll give 100 marks.” 

“No,” said the missionary, “I can- 
not take the money since you give it 
seeing me.” The man saw the point 
and said: “You are right, Andrew. 
Here are 200 marks, seeing it’s for 
the Lord Jesus.” 


MINISTERS 


769. Minister—Helping the 

The illustration by which Presi- 
dent Lincoln showed the evil of 
fault-finding, applies with far greater 
force when used with reference to 
eternal interests. “Suppose all the 
property you were worth was in 
gold, and you had put it in the hands 
of Blondin to carry across Niagara 
Falls on a tight-rope. Would you 
shake the rope while he was passing 
over it, or keep shouting to him, 
‘Blondin, stoop a little more,’ “Go a 
little faster’? No, I am sure you 
would not. You would hold your 
breath as well as your tongue, and 
keep your hands off until he was 
safely over. Now, the government 
is in the same situation, and is 
carrying across a stormy ocean an 
immense weight, untold treasures are 
in its hands. It is doing the best 
it can; don’t badger it; keep silence 
and it will get you safely over.” 
They who watch for souls must give 
account and are often crushed with 


MINISTERS 


a sense of responsibility, without 
the added burden of criticism from 
captious fault-finders. Don’t find 
fault with your minister. Cheer 
him. 


Minister—Prayer for 
Unconverted 


The Rev. Solomon Stoddard, the 
predecessor of the far-famed Presi- 
dent Edwards, was engaged by his 
people on an emergency. They soon 
found themselves disappointed, for 
he gave no indications of a renewed 
and serious mind. In this difficulty 
their resource was prayer. They 
agreed to set apart a day for special 
fasting and prayer, in reference to 
their pastor. Many of the persons 
meeting for this purpose had neces- 
sarily to pass the door of the min- 
ister. Mr. Stoddard hailed a plain 
man whom he knew, and addressed 
him, “What is all this? What is 
doing to-day?” The reply was, “The 
people, sir, are all meeting to pray 
for your conversion.” It sank into 
his heart. He exclaimed to himself, 
“Then it is time I prayed for my- 
self!” He was not seen that day. 
He was seeking in solitude’ what 
they were asking in company; and, 
“while they were yet speaking,” they 
were heard and answered. The pas- 
tor gave unquestionable evidence of 
the change; he labored amongst a 
beloved and devoted people for 
nearly half a century, and was, for 
that period, deservedly ranked 
among the most able and useful of 
Christian ministers. 


770. 


771. Minister—Slandering a 


An instance of most astounding 
slander is reported in the columns of 
a church paper. As is often the case, 
this slander was directed against a 
minister. It was said that his wife 
was attending a certain meeting, that 
he went there in a rage, that he by 
violence dragged her from the hall, 
and that he by force compelled her 
to go home with him. He allowed 


MINISTERS 


the story to circulate for a time, then 
riddled it as follows: 

“In the first place, I never at- 
tempted to influence my wife in her 
views nor her choice of a meeting; 

“Secondly, my wife did not attend 
the meeting in question; 

“In the third place, I did not at- 
tend the meeting myself; 

“To conclude, neither my wife nor 
myself had any inclination to go to 
the meeting; 

“Finally, I never had a wife.” 

Knowing what feats slander has 
accomplished, one cannot say that 
this instance reported from London 
is unbelievable. When slander once 
lays its tongue to a task, it can ac- 
complish anything which the most 


harebrained imagination can con- 
ceive. 
772. Ministers—God’s Best 


Speaking of the Cuban war, and 
his Rough Riders, Roosevelt de- 
clared, “The men I cared most for 
in the regiment were the men who 
did the best work; and therefore my 
liking for them was obliged to take 
the shape of exposing them to most 
fatigue and hardship, of demanding 
from them the greatest service and 
of making them incur the greatest 
risk. Once I kept Greenway and 
Goodrich at work for forty-eight 
hours without sleep and with very 
little food, fighting and digging 
trenches. I freely sent the men for 
whom I cared most, where death 
might smite them, as it did the two 
best officers in my regiment, Allyn 
Capron and Bucky O’Neil. My men 
would not have respected me, had I 
acted otherwise. Their creed was 
my creed. The life, even of the most 
useful men, of the best citizens, is not 
to be hoarded if there be need to 
spend it. I felt and feel this about 
others; and of course about myself.” 

And does not the Captain of our 
salvation demand the same thing of 
us? Are we thinking of soft places 
and fat salaries? He who, to save 


261 


us, gave himself up to the death of 
the cross will likewise demand of us 
strenuous and difficult service, serv- 
ice that costs something, and involves 
risks. God has had such men, like 
Joseph, Daniel, Paul and others. He 
has such men to-day calling us to 
hard and perilous tasks, a sign of 
the Father’s appreciation of us. 


773. Preachers—Curse of False 


A woman with a little baby in her 
arms wanted to leave the train at a 
little flag station out West one cold 
winter’s day. She said to the brake- 
man, “Don’t forget me.’ A man’ 
there said, “Lady, I will see that 
the brakeman doesn’t forget you— 
don’t you worry.” <A while later he 
said, “Here’s your station.” She 
stepped off the train—into the storm. 

The train had gone on about three- 
quarters of an hour when the brake- 
man came in and said, “Where’s that 
woman?” The traveling man said, 
“She got off.” The brakeman said, 
“Then she’s gone to her death; we 
only stopped the train yonder be- 
cause there was something the matter 
with the engine.” They called for 
volunteers and went back and looked 
for her. They finally found her on 
the prairie, covered with a shroud 
of ice and snow woven about her by 
the pitiless storm, and with the little 
babe folded to her breast. She fol- 
lowed the man’s directions, and they 
were wrong, and they led to her 
death and the death of her little one. 

How great the responsibility of the 
man, who sent her into the night and 
the raging storm! Greater still is 
the responsibility of the men who 
stand up as preachers and teachers 
of Christianity and who give to 
lost men and women and to their 
children the wrong directions. In- 
stead of pointing out God’s way of 
salvation by the blood, they obscure 
the cross, deny Christ’s atoning work 
and send their hearers down the road 
which leads into eternal darkness 
and misery. 


262 


How awful will be their remorse 
when they discover the work they 
have done by preaching the devil’s 
lie, instead of God’s eternal truth! 


Of such who give the wrong direc- - 


tions, who preach error and a delu- 
sion in the place of the Gospel, our 
Lord spoke in his severe denuncia- 
tion of the scribes and the Phari- 
sees. They are blind guides and the 
hypocrites, who shut up the kingdom 
of heaven against men. 

Preachers must ever bear in mind 
their great responsibility. 


MOTHER 


774. 4 Mother’s Forgiveness 


Do you want a reason why the 
mother forgives her child the tenth 
and twentieth time? Does not every- 
body know that it is because she is 
mother? What do you mean by this, 
except that her affections are like a 
well that never dries, and _ that, 
though you draw ten thousand 
bucketfuls, always has a_ bucketful 
more, because the water runs in as 
fast as it is taken out? Ina mother’s 
heart is loving-kindness and forgive- 
ness evermore.—H. W. Beecher. 


775. Faces—Holy 


In London a body of a woman 
now dead was brought into Crystal 
Palace and lay in state hour after 
hour. An endless stream passed the 
coffin, members of the royal family, 
the Prince of Wales, members of 
the House of Commons, lords, and 
men and women of low degree. 
Finally there came a woman evidently 
from the haunts of poverty, clothed 
in rags, her toes through her shoes, 
her head covered with an old fasci- 
nator. She carried one child and led 
another. When she came to the 
coffin she put the children on the 
floor, clasped her hands over the 
top of the casket and kissed the 
glass above the face of the woman 
sleeping within. The guard came 


MOTHER 


hurriedly up and told the woman to 
move on, that she was blocking the 
way, but she said: 

“T won't.” But he said, “You will 
have to, madam, you are obstructing 
the passage.” She said, “I won’t. I 
came sixty-five miles to see the face 
of the woman who saved my two 
boys from a drunkard’s grave, and 
now I have a right to look on her 
face.” 

The woman sleeping within was 
Mrs. Booth, mother of the Salvation 
Army, who did more, perhaps, than 
any other woman to rescue the 
drunkard and the harlot, and to tear 
the shackles from the lives of men 
and women that were bound. 


776. Mother—Honoring 


A beautiful stained glass window 
in a Methodist Episcopal church in 
New York state bears the simple 
and only inscription, “To a sainted 
mother.” This is pure eloquence. 

When William Howard Taft was 
President of the United States, he 
sent a check to help a little church in 
Milbury, Mass., with these words: 
“Just in memory of my mother. I 
know she would like to have me do 
something of that sort.” The words 
gave eloquence to the check. 

When the evangelistic-singer, F. 
A. Mills, well known for years in 
central New York, was called to part 
with his mother, he sang with deep 
feeling at her funeral: 


Oh, mother, when I think of thee, 
*Tis but a step to Calvary, 

Thy gentle hand upon my brow 
Is leading me to Jesus now. 


That is the eloquence of a sainted 
motherhood. 


777, Mother—Love of 


I know a mother who has an idiot 
child. For it she gave up all society, 
almost everything, and devoted her 
whole life to it. “And now,” said 
she, “for fourteen years I have 


MOTHER 


tended it, and loved it, and it does 
not even know me. Oh! it is break- 
ing my heart!’ Oh! how the Lord 
might say this of hundreds here. 
Jesus comes here, and goes from seat 
to seat, asking if there is a place 
for Him. Oh! will not some of you 
take Him into your hearts ?—Moody. 


778. Mother—Reunion With 


The lines of Marie Galbraith are 
full of pathos as they speak from 
heart to heart of the loneliness of 
the life and the emptiness of the 
home “Without Mother”: 


“It’s awful lonesome at our house 
*Thout mother ; 

It’s just as quiet as a mouse 
’Thout mother. 

An’ father looks so lonely there 

Of evenin’s, sittin’ in his chair; 

It just ain’t cheerful anywhere 
*Thout mother! 


“Tt’s awful hard to get along 
*Thout mother ; 

It seems that everything goes wrong 
*Thout mother. 

’Course, father does the best he can; 

But then, you know, he’s just a man, 

An’ don’t know how to fix an’ plan 
Like mother. 


“Seems like I don’t enjoy my play 
*Thout mother; 

Things just get worser every day 
*Thout mother! 

There’s no one now to mend my 

doll, 

Nobody’s sorry when I fall— 

O, home just ain’t no place at all 
’Thout mother! 


“But father says we must be brave 
*Thout mother, 
’Cause him an’ me, we only have 
One ’nother. 
An’ if we’re brave, an’ strong, an’ 
true, 
An’ good, just like she told us to, 
We'll go up home, when life is 
through, 
To mother!” 


263 


779. Mother Waiting 


Bianconi, the introducer of the car 
system into Ireland, in leaving his 
home in Italy, found his most trying 
leave-taking in separating from his 
mother. She fainted as he left her. 
Her last words were words which 
he never forgot—“When you remem- 
ber me, think of me as waiting at 
this window watching for your re- 
turn.”—Smiles. 


780. Mother—John Quincy 


Adams’ 
John Quincy Adams said: “All 
that I am my mother made me.” 


781. Mother—Michael Angelo’s 


The mother of Michael Angele 
was, in her way, as heroic a char- 
acter as her son. He once said: 
“Whatever a man is, he generally 
owes to his mother.” 


782. Mother—Thomas Edison’s 


Thomas A. Edison pays a splen- 
did tribute to his mother when he 
says: “I did not have my mother 
long, but she cast over me an influ- 
ence which has lasted all my life. 
The good effects of her early train- 
ing I can never lose. If it had not 
been for her appreciation and her 
faith in me at a critical time in my 
experience, I should never likely 
have become an inventor. I was 
always a careless boy, and with a 
mother of different mental calibre, 
I should have turned out badly. 
But her firmness, her sweetness, her 


goodness, were potent powers to 
keep me in the right path. My 
mother was the making of me. The 


memory of her will always be a bless- 
ing to me.” 


783. Mother—Lincoln’s 
“All that I am or hope to be,” said 
Lincoln, after he had become Presi- 
dent, “I owe to my angel mother.” 
784. Mother—Lord Macaulay’s 
Lord Macaulay, writing of his 


264 


mother, says: “Young people, look in 
those eyes, listen to that dear voice 
and notice the feeling of even a 


touch that is bestowed upon you by. 


that gentle hand. Make much of it 
while yet you have that most precious 
of all good gifts, a loving mother. 
Read the unfathomable love of those 
eyes; the kind anxiety of that tone 
and look, however slight your pain. 
In after life you may have friends, 
fond, dear, kind friends; but never 
will you have again the inexpressible 
love and gentleness lavished upon 
you which none but a mother bestows. 
Often do I sigh in my struggles with 
the hard, uncaring world, for the 
deep, sweet scrutiny I felt when of 
an evening, resting in her bosom, I 
listened to some quiet tale, suitable 
to my age, read in her tender, untir- 
ing voice. Never can I forget her 
sweet glances cast upon me when I 
appeared asleep; never her kiss of 
peace at night. Years have passed 
since we laid her beside my father 
in the cold churchyard, yet still her 
voice whispers from the grave, and 
her eyes watch over me as I visit 
spots long since hallowed by her 
memory.” 


785. Mother—Moody’s 

“All that I have ever accomplished 
in life,” declared Dwight L. Moody, 
the great evangelist, “I owe to my 
mother.” 


786. Mother—Napoleon’s 
Napoleon’s mother was as much of 
a soldier as her great son. Speak- 
ing of the influence of the mother 
on the character of the child, he said: 
“The future destiny of the child is 
always the work of the mother.” 


787. Mother—Benjamin West’s 


“A kiss from my mother made me 
a painter,” said Benjamin West. 


988. Mother’s Duty 


“Looking Where They’re Going” 
is the title of a London Mission an- 


MOTHER 


nual report. The title was suggested 
by a picture in “Punch” which shows 
a child stumbling over a stone in the 
roadway. Hurt and surprised he 
looks up at his mother and says, 
“Mummy, why don’t you look where 
I’m going?”—Sent by W. E. Griffin. 


789. Mother’s Faithfulness 


Somebody prays for a boy astray, 

Afar from home, at close of day, 

Somebody loves him, in spite of sin, 

Somebody seeks his soul to win, 

Would give her all, his soul to win; 
That somebody is mother. 


Somebody’s heart is filled with joy, 

To meet a penitent, erring boy, 

To know her prayers were not in 

vain, 
To welcome home her boy again, 
In spite of every sin and stain; 
That somebody is mother. 

—Richard Jones. 


790. Mother’s Hands 


Two brothers were in a Japanese 
agricultural college. One day one 
of these boys appeared wearing a 
woman’s yellow and black striped 
padded coat, with a velvet neck band 
showing that the garment was ordi- 
narily worn to support a baby carried 
Japanese fashion on the back. There 
was much tittering among the other 
students at this strange garb, and 
the instructors found their classes 
somewhat demoralized. At noon the 
young man was called into the 
faculty room for an explanation. 
His father was dead; his mother 
made a bare subsistence out of a 
small farm; she had managed to 
send her boys to school with clothes 
for the summer session. When 
winter came, the mother had tried 
to buy them the necessary winter 


kimono, but in spite of every 
economy she had been unable to 
manage it. 


“So I am sending you my own 
kimono and coat,” she wrote. “You 
must have your thin cotton ones 


MOTHER 


washed and mended. Wear my 
heavy kimono underneath, and as 
soon as I can I will send you some 
money to buy new ones.” 

“But though I have mended my old 
kimono,” the boy went on, “it is too 
ragged. There was only one thing 
to do—wear this one on the outside.” 

He was asked why, at least, he 
had not removed the tell-tale black 
velvet band. 

“Last night,” he replied, “I took 
the scissors and began to rip, but 


suddenly I remembered how my 
mother’s hands had sewed those 
stitches, and how she had taken 


off her warm coat to send to me, 
and how she was always working for 
us and thinking of us here, lonely 
for the sight of our faces, and I 
could not rip out the stitches of my 
mother’s hands. I had to wear it as 
it was.”—Asia Magazine. 


791. Mother’s Love 


It is said that an angel strolled 
out of heaven one beautiful day and 
found his way to this old world. He 
roamed through field and city be- 
holding the varied scenes of nature 
and art, and just at sunset he plumed 
his golden wings and said, “I must 
return to the world of light; shall 
I not take with me some mementos 
of my visit here? How beautiful 
and fragrant those flowers are! I 
will pluck of them a choice bouquet.” 
Passing a country home where he 
saw through the open door a rosy- 
cheeked babyy smiling up from the 
little crib into its mother’s face, he 
said, “The smile of that baby is 
prettier than these roses; I will take 
that, too.” Just then he looked be- 
yond the cradle and saw a devout 
mother pouring out her love like the 
gush of a perpetual fountain, as she 
stopped to kiss “Good-night” her 
precious baby. “Oh,” said he, “that 
mother’s love is the prettiest thing 
I have seen in all the world; I will 
take that, too!” With these three 
_ treasures he winged his way toward 


265 


the pearly gates, but just before 
entering he decided to examine his 
mementos, and to his astonishment 
the flowers had withered until they 
were no longer things of beauty, the 
baby’s smile had changed into a 
frown, but the mother’s love retained 
ali its pristine beauty and fragrance. 
He threw aside the withered roses 
and the departed smile, and, passing 
through the gates, was welcomed by 
the hosts of heaven that gathered 
about him to see what he had 
brought from his long journey. 
“Here,” said he, “is the only thing 
I found on earth that would retain 
its fragrance and beauty all the way 
to heaven. The sweetest thing in 
all the world is a mother’s love.”’— 
O. A. Newlin. 


792. Mother’s Prayers 


One Sunday morning a party of 
young men, students in a law school, 
all of them sons of Christian parents, 
started out to a grove to spend the 
sacred day in card playing and wine 
drinking. As they walked along 
laughing and jesting, a church bell 
in the distance began to ring. One 
of the men named George stopped 
and told his companions he was 
going back to the village and to 
church. They sought to dissuade 
him but he was firm. Then they 
gathered in a circle about him and 
threatened to give him a cold bath 
in the river. Quietly, calmly, ear- 
nestly the young man said: “I know 
you have power enough to put me 
there till I am drowned; and if you 
choose you can do so and I will 
make no resistance; but listen to 
what I have to say and then do as 
you think best. I am two hundred 
miles from home. My mother is a 
helpless, bedridden invalid. I am 
her youngest child. My father 
could not afford to pay for my 
schooling; but our teacher is a warm 
friend of my father and offered to 
take me without charge. He was 
anxious for me to come; but mother 


266 


would not consent. The struggle 
almost cost her what little life was 
left. At length, after many prayers, 
she yielded and said I might go. 
The preparations for my leaving 
home were soon made. My mother 
never said a word to me till the 
morning I was to leave. After I had 
eaten my breakfast she sent for me, 
and asked me if everything was 
ready; I told her I was waiting for 
the stage. At her request I kneeled 
beside her bed. With her loving 
hand upon my head she prayed for 
her youngest child. Many a night I 
have dreamed that whole scene over. 
It is the happiest recollection of my 
life. I believe to the day of my 
death I shall be able to repeat every 
word of that prayer. Then she said, 
‘My precious boy, you never can 
know the agony of a mother’s heart 
in parting for the last time from her 
youngest child. When you leave 
home you will have looked for the 
last time, this side of the grave, on 
the face of her who loves you as 
no other mortal can. Your father 
cannot afford the expense of your 
making visits during the two years 
that your studies will occupy. I 
cannot possibly live as long as that. 
My life has nearly run out. In the 
far off strange place to which you 
are going there will be no loving 
mother to give counsel. Seek coun- 
sel and help from God. Every Sun- 
day morning, from ten to eleven 
o’clock, I will spend the hour in 
prayer for you. Wherever you may 
be during this sacred hour, when you 
hear the church bells ring, let your 
thought come back to this chamber 
where your dying mother will be in 
prayer for you. I—but I hear the 
stage coming. Kiss me—farewell!’ 
Boys, I never expect to see my 
mother again on earth, but by God’s 
help, I expect to see her in heaven.” 

With tears streaming down his 
cheeks George looked into the faces 
of his companions. Their eyes were 
moist. The ring they had formed 


MOTHER 


about him opened and he went on his 
way to church. All quietly threw 
away their cards and wine flasks and 
followed him into the church service. 


793. Mother’s Prayers 


I tried when I was a boy to be an 
infidel, but there was one thing I 
could never get over. I never could 
answer my mother’s love and char- 
acter. My father was an intem- 
perate man, and my mother, when 
made miserable by his brutal treat- 
ment, would lead my little brother 
and myself to a spot under a hill- 
side, and kneeling there, would com- 
mend us to God. Hardship and her 
husband’s harshness brought her to 
her grave. At the age of twenty-one 
I was vicious, hardened, utterly im- 
penitent. Once I found myself near 
the home of my boyhood, and felt 
irresistibly moved to take another 
look at the little hollow under the 
hill, There it was as I left it; the 
very grass looked as if no foot had 
ever trod it since the guide of my 
infant years was laid in her early 
grave. I sat down. I heard again 
the voice pleading for me. All my 
bad habits and my refusals of Christ 
came over me and crushed me down. 
I did not leave the spot till I had 
confidence in my Saviour. My 
mother’s prayers came back in an- 
swers of converting grace, and I 
stand to-day the living witness of a 
mother’s faithfulness, of a prayer- 
hearing God.—Richard Cecil. 


794. Mother’s Pride 


When Governor Brewer was 
elected to his high office some one 
conveyed the news to his mother. 
“Tsn’t this the proudest day of your 
life?” they asked her. “Yes, I’m 
happy,” she answered, “but I was 
just as happy when my boy joined 
the church.” The story of the 
mother’s remark got in the papers. 
On the day the legislature convened, 
a representative arose and addressing 
the body said: “Gentlemen, I have 


i ——————————— 





MOTHER 


been investigating the truth of this 
little story that has been going the 
rounds, and find that it is true and 
I arise to move a resolution com- 
mending that wise remark of the 
honored mother of our Governor to 
the young men of this common- 
wealth.” 


795. Mother’s Sacrifice 


In a New Orleans cemetery there 
is a monument which has created 
much interest. It represents a ship 
in the midst of a storm-tossed sea; 
a mother and child clinging together 
on the vessel. On the base is an 
inscription saying they were drowned 
on July 4, 1900. They were sole 
survivors of a large estate, and the 
question was under whose name 
should the estate be administered, the 
name of the mcther or the daughter. 
The Court decided it should be in 
the name of the child, reckoning she 
went down last, because the mother 
would hold her in a place of safety 
to the end. A wonderful tribute to 

mother love! 


796. Mother’s Sacrifice 


There is a story called “Laddie”’ 
that tells of a Scotch mother whose 
son in early manhood had_ been 
allowed to go to London to be 
brought up by an old _ physician 
friend who educated him in his pro- 
fession. About the time the son 
graduated, his father died, and the 
young doctor was unable to go home. 
A few months later the mother, hun- 
gry for love, determined to go and 
live with her son who now had 
settled down to his profession. She 
surprised him, and while glad to see 
her, shadows played over his face at 
the thought of the little old-fash- 
ioned mother settled in his home. 
What would the aristocratic people 
think of her? What would his 
sweetheart Violet say, to her old- 
fashioned ways? 

Keeping her true identity from his 
servants he determined to settle her 


267 


in the suburbs of the great city where 
he might see her often. That night 
he suggested to her that the traffic 
and bustle of the city would be too 
noisy for her, and it would be better 
for her to live just outside of the 
city, where he could run out and visit 
her. A shadow came over her face. 
Quickly concealing it, however, after 
a while she retired saying that they 
would talk the matter over again in 
the morning. 

The doctor tried to sleep but could 
not. He rolled and tossed until he 
heard his door open and he called 
out: “Mother, what is it?” And she 
said, “Laddie, may I come in and 
tuck you in just as I used to do when 
you was a boy?” “Yes, mother,” he 
replied. Tucking him in, she stooped 
over and kissed him, and then re- 
tired. That kiss burned into his soul, 
and he resolved that he would keep 
his mother no matter what hap- 
pened. After making this decision, 
he fell asleep. 

He slept longer than usual in the 
morning. As soon as he was dressed 
he went to his mother’s room, but 
she was gone; the place was empty. 
A little note told him that she did 
not want to stand in his way, and she 
was sure she could find a way to care 
for herself. He tried to find her but 
could not; she had slipped out of 
sight. He told Violet and she 
searched with him, but to no avail. 
Months afterward when the doctor 
had visited a patient in the hospital, 
and was going out through the acci- 
dent ward, he saw a screen around 
a cot, and he said to the nurse: 
“Some one near death, I see.” “Yes,” 
was the reply, “an old woman was 
run over by an omnibus and she tells 
in her delirium about her old home 
and now and then she calls for 
Laddie.” Instantly the doctor was 
around the screen to the cot, and 
there lay his old mother. With a 
cry of “Mother,” that would almost 
have called one back from the dead, 
he threw himself by her side. She 


268 


opened her eyes and wearily stroked 
his head and said: “It has been a 
long way since I left you, Laddie.” 
Violet came and the two stood by 
her cot as her life went out with the 
going down of the sun. And she 
gave them her parting blessing, and 
the doctor discovered a mother’s love 
that did not want to stand in the 
way of her son’s success.—From The 
Drama of the Face. 


797. Mother’s Shame 


A pitiful scene took place in a cell 
in a Philadelphia jail last month 
when a mother died of a broken 
heart on seeing her son in such a 
place. With two children clinging 
to her dress she entered the cell and 
offered her son some food. “Here, 
Harry,” she said, “I thought perhaps 
they wouldn’t give you good meals, 
so I brought you something.” Then 
she began to cry, and overcome with 
a poignant sense of shame because 
of her son’s arrest, fell to the floor 
in convulsions. A few hours later 
she died. 


Jehovah lifted up his rod; 
O Christ, it fell on thee! 
Thou wast sore stricken of thy God; 
There’s not one stroke for me. 
Thy tears, thy blood, beneath it 
flowed, 
Thy bruising healeth me. 


798. Mother’s Suffering 


Years ago when I was pastor at 
X—— I had in my church a young 
man by the name of Hants. He took 
a fancy to a young woman visiting 
in the city, took her riding, declared 
his affection for her; but she did 
not encourage him. It seems that 
a young man by the name of Haws, 
thinking he had a prior claim to the 
girl’s interest, imagined himself 
wronged by the other young man’s 
advances. So young Haws man- 
aged to meet Hants in a lonely place, 
and without a moment’s warning, 
shot him through the head. The 


MOTHER 


trial of the murderer was in our 
court house. Huis parents were most 
excellent people, as were also the 
parents of the other young man. I 
watched the young murderer and his 
mother during the long days of the 
trial. Young Haws sat upright most 
of the time, smiled often, looked 
brazen most of the time, afraid some- 
what at times; indifferent most of 
the time. His good Quaker mother, 
whose pride and joy he had been; 
whose hope for honor and a happy 
old age had centered in him; who 
loved him with a strength surpass- 
ing his ability to understand; sat by 
him, and suffered for him ten, yes, 
a hundred times more than he was 
capable of suffering. If a mother 
can identify herself with her unde- 
serving son, what may not the loving 
Saviour, the friend of sinners, do as 
regards them? He knows the soul’s 
value; its possibilities for glory or 
shame; for bliss or woe; and his 
love is divine—N. C. Smith. 


799. Mothers Surprise 


One of the Christian workers dur- 
ing the Philadelphia Billy Sunday 
campaign asked an old man who was 
nearly blind and living in the midst 
of the most desperate poverty, if he 
would not like to become a Chris- 
tian. “Yes,” said he, “I would, and 
IT will!’ Then as the reality of 
what he had done came to him he 
turned to the worker and _ said: 
“Won’t it be a great surprise to 
mother?” Another mother’s sweet 
Christian life after many years had 
borne fruit. 


“O mother, when I think of thee, 
’Tis but a step to Calvary. 

Thy gentle hand upon my brow, 
Is leading me to Jesus, now.” 


00. Mother’s Trouble 


A dozen women were sitting in a 
parlor rehearsing their sorrows. 
One after another told her troubles, 
until eleven had spoken, and a pale, 





oe 


MOTHER 


sad woman had not spoken a word. 
They turned to her and said: “Tell 
us what your troubles are.” And 
she said: “I have listened to all of 
you, and you know nothing of what 
troubles are. I will tell you mine, 
since you have asked for them: I 
was raised in affluence; so was my 
husband. After we were married 
he bought a beautiful place on the 
Savannah River, and there we lived 
in our beautiful home, and in the 
course of years God blessed us with 
four children. One night I awoke 
in my room, and I dropped my hand 
out of the bed, and it dropped in 
water. I awoke my husband and 
he arose. The water was already 
a foot deep above the floor, and my 
husband gathered myself and the 
children, and carried us to a small 
raft near by; and the water rose 
very rapidly. And my husband said: 
‘I will take you and the baby first 
to the hillside, and then come back 
for the other children.’ My husband 
carried us over, and then went back; 
and, as the moon was shining upon 
the flood, the raft was carried away 
and my husband sank out of sight, 
and I have never seen him since. 
But,” she said, “that wasn’t trouble. 
I saw the water rise and carry my 
three-year-old child out of sight, 
and I have never seen it since; but 
that wasn’t trouble.” And she said: 
“T saw the water rise above the head 
of the next, and it struggled and 
passed out of sight. And then I 
sat there until the water had risen 
above the head of my first born, and 
I saw him swept away. But,” she 
said, “that wasn’t trouble. I was 
left a widow with just one little boy 
in my arms. I spent my whole life 
trying to rear him right. I sent him 
off to college. There he learned to 
dissipate; and when he was _ sent 
home he was fearfully dissipated. 
He spent all my means, and went 
from bad to worse; and I’ve just 
received letters and papers from 
Texas announcing the fact that my 


269 


poor boy was hung upon the gallows 
and died a criminal’s death and went 
to a criminal’s hell.” And she said: 
“O, ladies, there is trouble that no 
human heart can bear.”—Sam P. 
Jones. 


801. Mother’s Voice 


A short time ago a burglar 
entered a wealthy eastern home. The 
mother of the home, a widow, was 
awakened as was also her little boy, 
asleep also in the same room. As 
the little fellow awakened with a 
cry the mother attempted to quiet 
him. The woman, manifesting the 
greatest composure, asked the bur- 
glar what he was doing in her room. 
Instantly the burglar replied, “I 
heard you talking to your little boy 
and it made me think of my home 
and mother. I won’t harm you. I 
am going away.” And instantly he 
darted out the window by which he 
had entered. Love is the greatest 
thing in the world, but a mother’s 
voice is the divinest. The voice that 
can soothe the weakest babe can 
check a tyrant‘s rage. A boy is 
always a boy to a mother. He may 
be a thief, he may be a murderer, 
but he is her boy. The greatest 
reformatory agent in the world to- 
day is the tender voice of mother. 


802. Motherly Spirit 


Working among the poor of Lon- 
don, George McDonald went to the 
funeral of an apple woman. Her 
history makes the story of kings 
and queens contemptible. Events 
had appointed her to poverty, hunger, 
cold, and two rooms in a tenement. 
But there were three orphan boys 
sleeping in an ash box whose lot 
was harder. She dedicated her heart 
and life to the little waifs. Dur- 
ing two and forty years’ she 
mothered and reared some twenty 
orphans; gave them home and bed 
and food; taught them all she knew; 
helped some to obtain a scant knowl- 


270 


edge of the trades; helped others 
off to Canada and America. The 
author says she has misshapen fea- 
tures, but that an exquisite smile 
was on the dead face. It must have 
been so. She “had a beautiful soul,” 
as Emerson said of Longfellow. 
Poverty disfigured the apple woman’s 
garret, and want made it wretched, 
nevertheless God’s angels hovered 
over it. Her life was an event in 
London’s history. Social reform has 
felt her influence.—N. D. Hillis. 


803. The Memory of a Mother 


A man may go over all the world; 
he may become a pirate, if you 
please; he may run through every 
stage of belief and unbelief; he 
may become absolutely apostate; he 
may rub out his conscience; he may 
destroy his fineness in every respect; 
but there will be one picture that he 
cannot efface; living or dying there 
will rise before him, like a morning 
star, the beauty of that remembered 
goodness which he called “Mother.” 
—H. W. Beecher. 


804. The Motherhood Ideal 


The word of God says, “In honor 
preferring one another.” Does any- 
body really do this? Yes! I should 
like to know if the mother, when 
she sits down to the table with her 
children, picks out the best things, 
and eats them, and gives the children 
what is left. Does not she in love 
prefer every child? And, going 
down, she is more attentive to the 
youngest than to those that are older; 
the little babe in the cradle rules the 
whole of them. Her sensibility and 
kindness increase in the ratio of their 
need. And that which the mother 
feels is the type of universal mother- 
hood, or the true Christian feeling 
ripened in human nature—H. W. 
Beecher. 


05. Two Religions 
The following verses clipped from 


PARDON 


the Ram’s Horn are worth ponder- 
ing by all parents. They are entitled, 
“Two Religions”: 


I 


“A woman sat by a hearthside place 
Reading a book with a pleasant 


face, 

Till a child came up with a childish 
frown 

And pushed the book, saying, ‘Put 
it down.’ 

Then the mother, slapping his curly 
head, 

Said ‘Troublesome child, go off to 
bed; 

A great deal of God’s book I must 
know 

To train you up as a child should 
go.’ 

And the child went off to bed to 
cry 

And denounce religion—by and by. 


ifs 


“Another woman bent o’er a book 
With a smile of joy and an intent 


look, 

Till a child came up and joggled 
her knee, 

And said of the book, ‘Put it down 
—take me.’ 


Then the mother sighed as_ she 
stroked his head, 

Saying softly, ‘I never shall get it 
read; 

But Ill try by loving to learn His 
will, 

And his love into my child instill.’ 

That child went to bed without a 
sigh 

And will love religion—by and by.” 


PARDON 


806. Pardon Claimed 

In Queen Victoria’s Jubilee year, 
1887, I was in Edinburgh. One day, 
I saw a picturesque procession of 
civic dignitaries going to the old 
Cross near St. Giles’ Cathedral. 
There was a great crowd, and I 


PARDON 


turned and followed them. After 
a great fanfare of trumpets, a royal 
proclamation was read, declaring 
the queen’s forgiveness of all de- 
serters from the army and navy. I 
was not near enough to hear the 
terms of the proclamation, but I 
understood that all the deserters 
now pardoned should report them- 
selves within so many days at the 
nearest military or naval depot. I 
afterwards met two of them going 
to the castle. What were they going 
for? To be pardoned? Nay, they 
were pardoned already. It had been 
publicly proclaimed. They went 
simply to claim the certificate of their 
pardon; not to beg for it, but to 
claim it. Is that too strong a word 
to use of the sinner’s forgiveness? 
Let John answer: “If we confess 
our sins, he is faithful and righteous 
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse 
us from all unrighteousness.”—S. 
Chadwick, “Humanity and God.” 


807. Pardon—Humility Obtains 


“S. Bernard’s father went into the 
monastery, and dwelt there a cer- 
tain time, and afterwards died in 
good age. The sister was married 
into the world—and on a time she 
arrayed and apparelled herself in 
richness, and in delights of the 
world, and so went to the monastery 
for to visit her brethren in a proud 
state, and greatly apparelled, and he 
dreaded her as she had been the 
devil, or his net for to take souls, 
and he would not go out for to see 
her. And when she saw that none 
of her brethren came unto her, she 
melted all in tears, and said, ‘If I 
be a sinner, God died for sinners, 
and because that I am a sinful 
woman, I came for to ask counsel 
of them that be good, if my brother 
despise my flesh, he that is a servant 
of God ought not to despise my soul. 
Let my brother come to me, and 
what he shall command me I will do 
it, and hold that promise.’ Then he 
came to her, and taught her of the 


271 


right way.”—The Golden Legend— 
Life of S. Bernard.—S. J. Eales. 


808. Pardon—Purchased 


I have read, far back in the time 
of ancient Rome, there were two 
brothers, one of whom was a brave 
soldier, and had lost both his hands 
in the battles of his country. The 
other on one occasion was a crimi- 
nal, standing before the judge to 
receive a terrible sentence for a 
great crime of which he had been 
found to be guilty. Just as the 
sentence was about to be _ pro- 
nounced upon the culprit, his brave 
soldier brother rushed hastily into 
the court, and, going right up before 
the judge, held up those wounded 
and disfigured arms as the best plea 
he could make for his guilty brother. 
They seemed to say, “Spare him for 
what I have done,” and the story 
says the guilty one was pardoned 
for his brother’s sake. Jesus, our 
elder Brother, has undertaken now 
to appear in the presence of God for 
us, and we may rejoice that what He 
has promised He will perform—R. 
Brewin. 


809. Pardoned 


Mark Guy Pearse once told this 
story at Chautauqua: There was a 
young musician in the royal band of 
Hanover. He was a remarkable lad 
for his age, and his superior playing 
won much praise for him, and he 
liked to march at the head of the 
troops discoursing martial music. 
But when war came on and he had 
to lie in the trenches all night he 
could not stand it, and one night 
he deserted and fled to England. 
Now, as we are sadly aware in these 
war times, it is a serious thing for 
a soldier to desert. The penalty is 
death, and it is usually inflicted when 
the deserter is caught. But this man 
was not caught. He became a great 
organist, but his heart was in the 
stars and he was a still greater 
astronomer. With definite pains he 


272 


constructed a telescope, and then he 
scanned the heavens night after 
night, until one night he actually dis- 
covered a new planet. He was awed. 
He verified the discovery and then 
received the applause of the whole 
world. He was sent for by the king 
and went to Windsor Castle. But 
the king was George, of Hanover, 
the sovereign to whom his life was 
forfeit for his old desertion. The 
king knew him, too; and what would 
he do? Before the king would see 
him he was requested to open an 
envelope containing a royal com- 
munication. He did so, wondering 
what the king was going to do with 
him. It was his pardon as a deserter. 
“Now,” said King George, “we can 
talk, and you shall come up and 
live at Windsor and be Sir William 
Herschel.” The wonderful grace of 
God is sometimes reflected in human 
hearts. It serves to bring close to 
us the Father-heart of God. May 
the goodness of our Father lead us 
all to a hearty repentance for all our 
sins!—Sent by W. R. Clark, Red- 
ruth, England. 


810. Redeemed by Blood 


An African chief one day ordered 
a slave to be killed for a very small 
offense. An Englishman who over- 
heard the order offered the chief 
many costly things if only he would 
spare the poor man’s life. But the 
chief turned to him and said, “I 
don’t want ivory, or slaves, or gold; 
{ can go against yonder tribe and 
capture their stores and_ their 
villages. I want no favors from the 
white man. All I want is blood.” 
Then he ordered one of his men to 
pull his bowstring, and discharge an 
arrow at the heart of the poor slave. 
The Englishman instinctively threw 
himself in front and held up his arm, 
and the next moment the arrow was 
quivering in the white man’s flesh. 
Then, as the Englishman pulled the 
arrow from his arm, he said to the 
chief: “Here is blood; I give my 


PARDON 


blood for this poor slave, and I 
claim his life.” The chief gave the 
slave to the white man, saying, “Yes, 
white man, you have bought him 
with your blood, and he shall be 
yours.” In a moment the poor slave 
threw himself at the feet of his 
deliverer, and with tears flowing 
down his face, exclaimed, “O, white 
man, you have bought me with your 
blood; I wili be your slave forever!” 
The Englishman could never make 
him take his freedom. Wherever 
he went the slave was beside him, 
and no drudgery was too hard, no 
task too hopeless for the grateful 
slave to do for his deliverer. 


811. Redemption—Understanding 


A preacher was sent for to see a 
dying woman of wealth, education 
and refinement, but ignorant of the 
essential facts of the Christian faith. 
Her religious views had been formed 
entirely by the influence of certain 
clubs. To her mind Jesus was 
simply a moral teacher, standing in 
line with other religious masters. 
She had no knowledge of Chris- 
tianity as a religion of redemption 
from the power and guilt of sin. 
Her life-story had been a sad one; 
stained both by sin and sorrow. The 
poor, dying soul stated it for her- 
self in words that are charged with 
meaning. “Oh,” she sighed, “that 
it were possible for some one to take 
my guilty conscience as it were his 
own, that I might find a little peace!” 
The minister said that he learned 
more in that single sentence concern- 
ing the mystery of redemption than 
up to that moment he had ever 
thought of in his life. Here was a 
soul who knew and stated the need 
of just such a salvation as we are 
invited to proclaim. The sense of 
guilt and awakening power in the 
dying woman. The only relief can 
come through a knowledge of the 
Lord’s taking our burden of guilt as 
though it were his own, and bearing 
it in our stead. 


REGENERATION 


REGENERATION 


812. Blind Eyes Opened 


One evening during the Torrey- 
Alexander meetings held in Phila- 
delphia, the vast audience was sing- 
ing the hymn describing the change 
which will take place when our 
Saviour shall appear. An old man, 
sitting near the platform, joined 
most heartily, especially in the 
chorus. Mr. Alexander, who has 
the sharpest eyes, noticed the old 
man, and in his winsome way asked 
if he would not rise and sing the 
chorus by himself. The request was 
complied with, and a somewhat 
quavering voice sang the words: 


“Oh, what a change! Oh, what a 
change! 
When I shall behold his wonderful 
face.” 
The old man sat down. Mr. 


Alexander said: “My friends, these 
words mean more to our friend here 
than you and I can imagine. To 
see our Saviour’s face will be a 
joy to us, but what will it be to 
him whose eyes are closed to all 
earthly sights, for he is blind.” 
The incident brought to our mind 
the sweet story by Ian Maclaren of 
old blind Marjorie, who one day 
said to her elder Donald Mensies: 
“There’s a mercy waitin’ for me 
that'll crown a’ his goodness, and 
I’m feared when I think o’t that 
I am no worthy.” 
“What iss that that you will be 
meaning, Marjorie?” said her elder. 
“He has covered my face with his 
hand, as a father plays with his 
bairn, but some day sune he will 
lift his hand, and the first thing 
Marjorie sees in a’ her life will be 
his ain face.’—T. L. H. 


813. Born Again 

Michael Angelo carved his cele- 
brated statue of David from a block 
of marble which had received so 
deep an indentation as to be quite 


273 


unserviceable under a less daring 
chisel. So Christ deals with hu- 
manity. No other hand but his 
could shape the saint, who is to 
stand faultless at last before the pres- 
ence of the glory of God, out of 
man as we see him in the world 
around us.—B. 


814. Changing the Appearance 


In South America some curious 
birds are seen with yellow feathers. 
The Indians have learned the art 
of making these birds change the 
color of their feathers. They pluck 
them out, then inoculate the fresh 
wound with a secretion from the 
skin of a toad. The feathers which 
afterwards grow are of very differ- 
ent color. But the changed appear- 
ance of the feathers does not in any 
way alter the character of the bird. 
A man may have the color of his 
outward life completely changed and 
yet remain the same unregenerate 
soul before God. There may be 
reformation without regeneration. 
A better appearance does not always 
mean a better character. Temper- 
ance and other societies have inocu- 
lated many with better views of life, 
but they cannot transform the carnal 
mind, which is enmity against God.— 
James Smith. 


815. Evil—Overcoming 


I once heard a minister say, “Sup- 
pose some cold morning you should 
go into a neighbor’s house and find 
him busy at work on his windows, 
scratching away, and should ask 
what he was up to, and he should 
reply, ‘Why, I am trying to remove 
the frost; but as fast as I get it 
off one square it comes on another.’ 
would you not say, ‘Why, man, let 
your windows alone and kindle your 
fire, and the frost will soon come 
off’? And have you not seen people 
who try to break off their bad 
habits one after another without 
avail? Well, they are like the man 


274 


who tried to scratch the frost from 
his windows. Let the fire of love to 
God and man, kindled at the altar 
of prayer, burn in their hearts, and 


the bad habits will soon melt away.” — 


816. God’s Power Needed 


The futility of transforming men 
by education alone was proven by 
Hans Edge, who spent fifteen years 
in Greenland attempting to make 
intelligent Christians of the inhabi- 
tants. With a broken heart he de- 
livered his farewell message from 
the words of Isaiah, “I have labored 
in vain; I have spent my strength 
for naught.” Two years later he 
was succeeded by John Beck, who 
preached Christ crucified. One of 
the first converts was Kajernack, 
who became a flame of evangelistic 
veal amid the frozen regions of 
Greenland. Christ’s death and resur- 
rection in their revolutionary power 
effected instantly what fifteen years 
of educational effort failed to show 
any signs of accomplishing. Beck’s 
ministry verified Paul’s statement, 
“Your labor is not in vain in the 
Lord.’—O. A. Newlin. 


817. Gospel—Wrong Use of 


When tea was introduced into 
Germany, a gentleman received a 
pound as a gift froma friend. Some 
time after the latter inquired, “Have 
you tried the tea?” “Yes, but we 
did not like it!’ “How is that, every- 
one else is delighted with it?” “We 
cooked it, poured off the brown 
liquid and served the leaves, which 
were tough and bitter.” 

We are not surprised that many 
people find the gospel so little palat- 
able. They make wrong use of it. 
They take certain outward forms 
and ceremonies and are astonished 
to find so little strength in them. In 
spite of Christ’s warning they patch 
old garments with new patches and 
have as result only rags. If their 
hearts should be cleansed by the 


REGENERATION 


blood of Christ and renewed by the 
Holy Spirit they would soon have 
another story to tell! 


818. Habits—Exchanging 


The inefficiency of mere reform is 
only too well emphasized at the 
beginning of each new year, so much 
so that such “resolutions” are the 
subject of jest and quip. It is sadly 
in evidence at other times through 
the entire year to the godly minister 
seeking to bring his people into vital 
touch with his Master. A pastor 
speaking of the matter said: “There 
is in my congregation a prominent 
physician who on learning that his 
young son had begun the habit of 
smoking offered him $1,000 when he 
should become of age if he would 
give up the practice. The boy 
readily agreed, to the father’s great 
delight, but a few weeks afterward 
was quite chagrined to learn that the 
young man had taken up the kindred 
habit of ‘chewing’ tobacco. On being 
pressed about the matter the boy 
confessed that he had begun the 
‘chewing’ on the very day he had 
abandoned the ‘smoking.’ There was 
no real desire to forsake the filthy 
practice. He was merely willing 
to exchange one habit (practically 


the same) for another.” It is ever 
so with the reformer. He needs 
something more than the mere 


quitting. The man who expects to 
become a Christian by lopping off 
habits will never become one. There 
must be a new life within—Peter 
Zaleski. 


819. Holiness—Beauty of 


The daughter of an artist lost her 
eyesight through sickness in her 
babyhood. For years she was 
thought incurable, then a successful 
operation by a noted specialist re- 
stored her eyesight. The mother of 
the child had died some years before 
and the father had been her com- 
panion and dearest friend. While 


REGENERATION 


the fifteen-year-old girl had lain in 
the darkened room with bandaged 
eyes, the one thought was constantly 
with her: “Soon I will see my 
father.’ And when the days of 
waiting had passed and the bandages 
were removed from her eyes and she 
looked into the noble, joy-filled face 
of her father, she trembled for joy, 
closed her eyes, opened them again, 
to convince herself that she was not 
dreaming. And when the father took 
her into his arms, she exclaimed: 
“And I’ve had so beautiful a father 
so many years and did not know it!” 
That is the experience of thou- 
sands. The heavenly Father cares 
for us with tenderness, guides us in 
security, teaches us in patience, but 
our eyes are holden, we do not recog- 
nize him. O that the bandages might 
be removed and we might recognize 
him in all the glory of his love! 


820. Lost Restored 


One day an accident happened in 
the laboratory of the celebrated 
chemist Faraday. A workman 
knocked a silver cup into a jar of 
strong acid. In a very short time 
the cup entirely disappeared, being 
dissolved in the liquid. One after 
another the workmen gathered 
around and regretfully watched the 
melting of the beautiful cup. All 
said that it was utterly lost, that no 
particle of the silver could be re- 
covered. But Faraday, being in- 
formed of the accident, brought some 
chemical mixture and poured it in 
the jar. Gradually every particle of 
the silver was precipitated to the 
bottom and at length the great 
chemist drained off the acid and 
took out the silver, now a shapeless 
mass. He sent the lump of metal 
to the silversmith who had made the 
cup, and in a few days it came back 
restored to its former shape, a won- 
der and delight to those who had 
watched its apparent destruction.— 
(J. Buckham, “The Heritage of 
Life.”)—James Hastings. 


275 


821. New Birth—Necessity of 


A man has bought a farm, and he 
finds on that farm an old pump. He 
goes to the pump and begins to 
pump. And a person comes to him 
and says, “Look here, my friend, you 
do not want to use that water. The 
man that lived here before, he used 
that water, and it poisoned him and 
his wife and his children—the water 
did.” “Is that so?” says the man. 
“Well, I will soon make that right. 
I will find a remedy.” And he goes 
and gets some paint, and he paints 
up the pump, putties up all the holes, 
and fills up the cracks in it, and has 
got a fine-looking pump. And he 
says, “Now I am sure it is all right.” 
You would say, “What a fool, to go 
and paint the pump when the water 
is bad!” But that is what sinners 
are up to. They are trying to paint 
up the old pump when the water is 
bad. It was a new well he wanted. 
When he dug a new well it was all 
right. Make the fountain good, and 
the stream will be good. Instead of 
painting the pump and making new 
resolutions, my friend, stop it, and 
ask God to give you a new heart.— 
Moody. 


822. Postponing the New Life 


What do you wait for? Do you 
wait for youth to pass? When I 
would bring to a friend a pleasant 
gift from my garden I do not wait 
till the rose sheds its leaves, and 
pluck the remainder for that friend: 
I give it to him while it is in its 
highest state of freshness and beauty. 
And would you bring to God, the 
greatest, the dearest, the noblest, the 
best of friends, your soul after the 
bloom of youth is dropped and you 
have come into the years of decay? 
—H. W. Beecher. 


823. Power—Secret of 

Some one asked St. Francis of 
Assisi why he was so influential and 
had so much power with the people. 


276 


“Well,” replied St. Francis, “T’ve 
been thinking about that myself lately, 
and this is why: The Lord looked 


down from heaven to earth and said: . 


‘Where can I find the weakest, the 
littlest, the meanest man on the face 
of the earth?’ Then he saw me and 
said, ‘I’ve found him, and now Vil 
work through him. He won't be 
proud of it. He'll see that lam using 
him because of his littleness and 
insignificance.” When we are will- 
ing to be only the vessel which holds 
the mercies of God for our fellow 
men God will fill us full of blessings 
for them.—Banks. 


824. Regeneration 

“By regeneration we understand 
the commencement of the life of 
God in the soul of man; the begin- 
ning of that which had not an exist- 
ence before: by renewal, the in- 
vigoration of that which has been 
begun; the sustentation of a life 
already possessed. . In the 
washing of regeneration the new life 
commences. Having begun it needs 
to be supported and preserved. This 
is effected by the renewing of the 
Holy Ghost, the flowing into the 
soul through the supply of the Spirit 
of Jesus Christ of the varied gifts 
of the Divine Agent by whom the 
life itself was imparted at first.’— 
Thomas Binney. 


825. Regeneration and Education 


How can we consecrate our school 
life? First by a right appreciation 
of wisdom. Knowledge isn’t wis- 
dom. A man may know a great deal 
yet utterly lack in education. Knowl- 
edge is a matter of books; educa- 
tion is a matter of the soul. The 
writer of the Proverbs urges his son 
to get wisdom; “with all thy getting, 
get understanding.” To be is greater 
than to know. A few years ago one 
of our state penitentiaries had two 
hundred and thirty-five college grad- 
uates within its walls, as prisoners. 
Talking with a prisoner at San 


REGENERATION 


Quentin, a short time ago, I learned 
that the character of the prisoners 
from an intellectual standpoint was 
high. “We have men here who are 
capable of any position in the world; 
there is no task or project they 
couldn’t carry through to success.” 
What is wrong with them? An un- 
fortunate moral twist. So, our first 
effort in the consecration of school 
life is to realize the worth of wis- 
dom, as against the common idea of 
knowledge—W. H. Geistweit. 


826. Saving the Lowly 


A Brahman visiting a missionary 
in India saw a picture on the wall 
of Christ washing the disciples’ feet. 
The Brahman said, “You Christians 
pretend to be like Jesus Christ, but 
you are not: none of you ever wash 
people’s feet.” The missionary said, 
“But that is just what we are doing 
all the time! You Brahmans say 
you sprang from the head of your 
god Brahm; that the next caste 
lower sprang from his shoulders; the 
next lower from his loins, and the 
low caste sprang from his feet. We 
are washing India’s feet, and when 
you proud Brahmans see the low 
caste and the out-caste getting edu- 
cated and Christianized, washed, 
clean, beautiful, and holy, inside and 
outside, you Brahmans and all India 
will say, ‘Lord, not my feet only, but 
also my hands and my head.’” 


827. Spiritual Education 


True education is not the cram- 
ming of the mind with different 
ideas, but the developing of our 
capacities, so that their real char- 
acter may be brought out to the best 
advantage, and the highest purposes 
of our lives accomplished. In the 
caterpillar all the rudiments of the 
butterfly may be seen, but a great 
change is needful to liberate the 
higher faculties, and make the 
caterpillar that new creature it seeks 
to be. Jesus Christ said, “Learn of 
Me.” He educates by regenerating 


REPENTANCE 


the character and opening the way 
for the full development of all the 
capacities of the new man. To learn 
of Christ, then, is to be conformed 
into His likeness, and so be able to 
fulfill all the purposes of God in the 
new life-—James Smith. 


828. Worldly Wisdom 


It is a well-known scientific fact 
that the illuminating power of phos- 
phorus is due to the process of de- 
composition, the outcome of putre- 
faction, although no appearance of it 
may be visible. The wisdom of this 
world may be very attractive in cer- 
tain circumstances, but with regard 
to spiritual things it is only phos- 
phorescence as compared with the 
wisdom of God in Christ Jesus. It 
may be beautiful but it is ephemeral 
and delusive, being only the product 
of corrupt man. In the Scriptures 
we have “the sure word of prophecy, 
wherein we do well to take heed” 
(2 Peter 1. 19).—James Smith. 


REPENTANCE \ 


829. Gain in Loss 

One day Robert Peel arose in the 
House of Commons, and in the pres- 
ence of an indignant party and 
astounded country proudly said: “I 
have been wrong. I now ask Parlia- 
ment to repeal the law for which I 
myself have stood. Where there was 
discontent, I see contentment; where 
there was turbulence, I see peace; 
where there was disloyalty, I see 
loyalty.” Then the fury of party 
anger burst upon him, and bowing 
to the storm Robert Peel went forth 
while men hissed after him such 
words as “traitor,” “coward” and 
“recreant leader.” Nor did he fore- 
see that in losing an office he had 
gained the love of a country.— Hillis. 


830. Repentance—Death-Bed 
Professor Henry Drummond tells 


277 


a story of a young man in the uni- 
versity where he used to teach. He 
was a medical student, and a fine 
physical specimen of human life, but 
he contracted typhoid fever and soon 
lay dying in one of the hospitals. 
One of the physicians who attended 
him was an earnest Christian and 
a successful soul-winner, and he ven- 
tured to speak to him _ personally 
about his soul’s need of a Saviour. 
The young man, with tearful eyes, 
listened to the story of redeeming 
love and began to feel anxious. 
“Will you now give yourself to 
Jesus?” asked the doctor. He did 
not answer for a while, and then, 
earnestly looking into the face of 
the doctor, he said, “But don’t you 
think it would be awful mean just 
to make it up now at the last gasp 
of my dying breath, with one whom 
I have rejected all my life?” “Yes, 
it would be mean, but, dear fellow, 
it would be far meaner not to do it. 
Jesus wants you to do it this minute, 
for he has made you willing, and it 
would be doubly mean to reject a 
love that is pressing you even to 
death!” The dying man saw the 
point, and for the first time appre- 
ciating the Saviour’s tenderness and 
love, accepted it with joy, and died 
with the smile of God’s peace on his 
face. 


8371. Repentance—Death-Bed 


Do not trust a death-bed repent: 
ance, my brother. I have stood by 
many a death-bed, and few indeed 
have there been where I could have 
believed that the man was in a con- 
dition physically (to say nothing of 
anything else) clearly to see and 
grasp the message of the gospel. I 
know that God’s mercy is bound- 
less. I know that a man, going— 
swept down that great Niagara—if, 
before his little skiff tilts over into 
the awful rapids, he can make one 
great bound with all his strength, 
and reach the solid ground—I know 
he may be saved. It is an awful risk 


278 


to run. A moment’s miscalculation, 
and skiff and voyager alike are 
whelming in the green chaos below, 
and come up mangled into nothing, 


far away down yonder upon the » 


white turbulent foam. “One was 
saved upon the cross,” as the old 
divines used to tell us, “that none 
might despair; and only one that 
none might presume.”—Maclaren. 


832. Repentance—Individual 


The easiest place for a criminal 
to lose himself in is a crowd. The 
fugitive from justice rarely flees to 
the solitude of the countryside, but 
buries himself in the heart of some 
great city. It is easier to escape 
detection in the midst of his fellow- 
men than in the lonely recesses of 
the forest or the hills. Many a 
criminal has been lost to justice in 
the teeming populace of the metrop- 
olis. Do we not carry something of 
this thought, something of the hope 
that our individual guilt will remain 
undetected in the crowd, into our 
dealings with God? Do we not 
sometimes lose the sense of our per- 
sonal responsibility when we join in 
our general confession, “We have 
erred and strayed like lost sheep. 
pin There is no health in us”? 
It is easy, for a time at least, to 
bury ourselves in such a crowd as 
that. But oh! if we are ever to taste 
the sweetness of Divine pardon, if 
we are ever to thrill with joy at the 
gracious assurance, “Thy sins, which 
are many, are all forgiven,” we must 
come out of that crowd and cast 
ourselves individually in the dust 
before Him. “I will confess mine 
iniquity unto the Lord,” cried David, 
in all the terrible isolation of his 
conscious guilt; and then he found 
the blessing—“Thou forgavest the 
iniquity of my sin.” “God be mierci- 
ful to me the sinner,’ sobbed the 
poor publican, as he beat upon his 
breast in the agony of his personal 
grief; and when he came to that 
point of self-condemnation, he too 


REPENTANCE 


found the blessing—“He went down 
to his house justified.” The prodi- 
gal, burying his face in his father’s 
bosom, cried, “Father, I have 
sinned,” and then too the blessing 
was his—“This my son was dead, 
and is alive again; he was lost, and 
is found.”—(G. A. Sowter’s “Trial 
and Triumph”’)—James Hastings. 


833. Repentance—Leading to 


A lad began to learn the printer’s 
trade at small wages. After he 
grew to manhood he bought a large 
printing business and gave his notes 
for nearly the entire amount. He 
worked hard and met the notes as 
they became due. When the last 
note was paid he came home with a 
beaming face. He handed the re- 
ceipted note to his wife and said: 
“God has been good to us. We owe 
it to him to spend the remainder of 
our lives in his service.” The next 
evening the pastor of the church of 
their choice was invited to their 
home and they expressed their desire. 
The next Sabbath morning they were 
received into the church. That man 
has become a man of wealth and 
prominence in his state and is a stal- 
wart Christian character. “The 
goodness of God leadeth thee to re- 
pentance.” 


834. Repented Sins to Be 
Forgotten 


There are persons who live largely 
in re-hashing their sins and their 
sense of guilt. Why, did you not 
repent of them? When a man has 
repented of his sins, that is enough. 
Put them out; do not keep them like 
so many mummies in the house. 
When you have done wrong and 
found it out, and have changed to 
right, and have rectified all the ways 
in which your wrong-doing has 
affected anybody else, that is the 
end: you have no business to come 
back and sit down on your old 
gravestones.—H. W. Beecher. 


REPENTANCE 


835. Repentance—Tardy 


Gilbert a-Becket, one of the Cru- 
saders, was captured and made to 
serve a rigorous master, like a 
quarry slave. This tyrant had a 
daughter, who most sincerely pitied 
the captive and her sympathy ripened 
into love. She planned to effect his 
escape. After months of intense 
anxiety, he was put on board a vessel, 
which was anchored in the harbor of 
Tyre. He solemnly vowed to send 
for her to come to England and be- 
come his wife, but when he reached 
the shores of his native country he 
became absorbed with other plans 
and ignored his benefactress who 
had risked her life to save his own. 
With implicit trust in his honor, she 
gathered up her jewels and money 
to search for him. Tongue cannot 
tell the hardships she experienced in 
that age of slow traveling and adven- 
ture, but she at last reached the 
shores of Great Britain. All the 
English she could command were the 
words “Gilbert” and “London.” 
She attracted crowds in the streets, 
but uttered the two mnames_ so 
familiar to her, till one day Gilbert 
chanced in the street, and she rushed 
into his arms. Tardy repentance 
won the day, for he broke the en- 
gagement made to marry a wealthy 
Englishwoman and she became his 
wife. 


836. Repentance—Tears of 


The great Italian poet, Dante, has 
given classic expression in his great- 
est poem to the idea that a single 
tear of repentance proves the re- 
deemability of a soul. Readers of 
his “Purgatorio” will remember how 
Buonconte, a man of blood and no 
true knight, fell mortally wounded 
at the battle of Campeldino. As he 
lay dying he bethought him of his 
sins and fashioning a rough cross 
from two pieces of wood, he held 
it before him whilst his soul yearned 
to repent. At last a single tear of 


279 


true penitence fell upon it as his soul 
plunged into eternity. The great 
poet describes how a demon de- 
manded Buonconte for hell but the 
virtue of his single tear brought a 
white angel flashing from the sky to 
lift his soul to God. 

Curiously enough there is an 
ancient legend of Egypt which en- 
shrines a similar story. A_ rich 
Egyptian lord was disturbed one day 
in the midst of his pomp and vanity 
by a celestial voice that bade him 
mend his ways lest ill befall him. 
“What shall I do?” he replied. 
“Seek the hermit’s counsel,” was the 
answer. 

The rich lord climbed the rugged 
mountain where the hermit made his 
home and having told his story was 
given a little flask. “Take this and 
fill it at yonder stream,” said the 
hermit. “And your soul shall be 
shriven and pardoned.” 

Pleased with so light a penance 
the lord hastened to obey, but no 
matter how often or how deep he 
dipped the flask beneath the waters 
not a drop would enter the phial. 

His heart grew hot with anger and 
he was about to return to the cave, 
but pride bade him stay. “There are 
other streams. I will not return un- 
successful from so simple a task..” 

Thus he became the “pilgrim of 
the flask,” for he wandered through 
many a country and for many a year, 
over mountains and through forests, 
facing hardship, pain and beggary, 
but never could the flask be filled. 
At last, his pride beaten by his suf- 
ferings, he humbly prayed to heaven 
for guidance. “Return to the hermit 
and confess your failure,” was 
heaven’s reply. With renewed hope 
and with chastened spirit the pilgrim 
hastened to obey. “Father,” he said 
to the hermit, “I have been far and 
wide but the flask is still dry. My 
heart is not yet touched to the quick 
and I am not yet pardoned.” 

“My son,’ answered the hermit, 
“you have done enough. Let go your 


\ 


280 


purpose and rest from your labor.” 


But this was too much for the still . 


rather haughty lord. Should he re- 
turn home unforgiven! Was there 


nothing he could do to earn pardon — 


and peace? With disappointment his 
heart broke and a slow tear, just one 
tear, rolled down his cheek and fell 
into the flask. In a moment the tear 
had swollen and the flask was filled 
to the brim. 

“Vou are shriven,” said the hermit. 

Such virture is there in one tear 
of repentance! 


RESURRECTION 


837. Christ Risen 


“Fear not ye; he is not here; he is 
risen; come see the place where the 
Lord lay.” Matt. 28: 6. 

He is risen! He has tasted death, 
but he has not seen corruption; for 
he is the Holy One of God, and upon 
holiness corruption cannot fasten. 
It is with this risen life that faith 
connects us, from the moment that 
we believe in Him who died and rose 
again. Let us note, then, such things 
as these: 

I. The security of the risen life. 
The faith that knits us to him 
makes us partakers of his resurrec- 
tion. 

II. The power of the risen life. 
It was as the Risen One he spake: 
“All power is given unto me,” etc. 
In that power we are made more 
than conquerors. 

Ill. The love of the risen life. 
The resurrection was a newer and 
higher stage of being; and with the 
perfection of life there comes a per- 
fection of love. 

IV. The affinities of the risen life. 
The resurrection breaks no bonds 
save those of mortality. 

V. The joys of the risen life. In 
the tomb the Man of Sorrows left 
all his sorrows, as he left all our 
sins) Then they were buried with 


RESURRECTION 


him. At this resurrection his full 
joy began. But the fullness of that 
risen joy is also in reserve for us. 


838. Resurrection Body 


Lazarus was reanimated. Jesus was 
resurrected. The stone was required 
to be rolled away to permit Lazarus 
to come out of the tomb. Jesus did 
not require the stone to be rolled 
away in order that he might come 
forth. The angel rolled away the 
stone from the door of the tomb to 
let the outsiders in, not to let Jesus 
out. In that tomb were evidences of 
the resurrection which it was desir- 
able the disciples should see. The 
winding sheets spoke as eloquently 
and convincingly of entrance into 
new life, as the empty shell of the 
chrysalis speaks of the flight of the 
butterfly. Lazarus brought with him 
out of the tomb the wrappings of the 
grave that were about him. Jesus 
came forth from the tomb without 
the winding sheets of death. He did 
not need to be loosed and let go. 
He was the Prince of Life. It was 
impossible that he should be holden 
of death. At the word of God, who 
raised him from the dead, he sprang 
in his new, powerful, spiritual body 
out of the wrappings, thus evidenc- 
ing him to be the Son of God with 
power. He left them intact, except 
for the head-roll which, when re- 
leased, naturally fell back to a place 
by itself; and then on through the 
walls of the sealed tomb he pro- 
ceeded into the free atmosphere of 
that first Easter morning.—J. Camp- 
bell White. 


839. Resurrection and Science 


“Why should it be thought a thing 
incredible with you, that God should 
raise the dead?’ Such was the 
question of Paul in_ his day. 
With the light that comes from the 
discoveries of modern science, the 
question may be repeated with em- 
phasis. 


RESURRECTION 


The Rev. W. H. Fitchett, D.D., the 
well-known Australian author, has 
intimated that the latest discovery of 
science is what may be called won- 
ders and glories hidden in infinitesi- 
mal things. In an address delivered 
before the General Conference of 
the Methodist Church of Australia, 
he said: “I had the pleasure, ~when in 
London, of making the acquaintance 
of Leonard Huxley, the son and 
biographer of the famous scientist. 
I reminded him one day of the mys- 
terious energies of radium; how a 
microscopic speck of radium can 
pour out a spray of fiery particles— 
a stream of electrical energy—sufh- 
cient to ring a bell for thirty thou- 
sand years. I asked him whether 
that was not a new argument, from 
the scientific side, for the doctrine of 
immortality. Is it credible that 
whoever made the universe which 
would run through thirty thousand 
years, would give to the _ intel- 
lect that could measure the force of 
that radium only three score years 
and ten? And my friend ad- 
mitted the logic. There is no an- 
swer to it.” 

Another writer has recently re- 
minded us that the wings of certain 
moths and _ butterflies, under a 
powerful microscope, show forty-two 
millions of brilliantly tinted scales 
to the square inch. But if such 
largeness of labor, such expenditure 
of thought is lavished as if for very 
pleasure, without effort, on creatures 
whose glimmer of consciousness lasts 
but for a summer, what beauty of 
body, mind and soul may not belong 
to us, who are the final result of the 
cosmic purpose as related to this 
earth; us, in whom creative wisdom 
has its delight; us, who, being made 
a little lower than the angels, are 
crowned with honor! 

These are statements well worth 
considering. Possibly, after reading 
them, we may feel disposed to ex- 
claim: “With God all things are pos- 
sible.”—W. J. Hart. 


281 


840. Resurrected Life 


A pestilence hovers over a great 
city with its dark wings, and every 
night the husband goes to his cot- 
tage home wondering whether he 
may not find the wife whom he left 
in health in the morning stricken at 
night. One evening the house is 
closed, and the windows are dark. 
He knocks and there is no answer, 
and he rings, and he gets no re- 
sponse, and his heart sinks within 
him. But suddenly he discerns on 
the floor a little paper, and opens 
it and reads it, and it brings him a 
message from his wife: “My father 
has come for me, and has taken me 
up into the mountains where there is 
no malaria, no disease, no danger. I 
am safe there, and in a few days he 
is coming for you to follow me.” So 
we come to the house that held our 
beloved. It is dark, and out of the 
windows that shone with the light of 
love no light is shining. We are 
heart-broken, until we find the Word 
brought to us that the loved one has 
gone to the mountains where there is 
no pain, nor sorrow, nor temptation, 
nor disease, but the ever-blooming 


flowers and the everlasting sun- 
light. 
841. Resurrection—Belief in 


When Sir James Simpson, the 
great physician and the discoverer of 
anzsthetics, lost his eldest child, he 
erected*on the grave an obelisk point- 
ing like a spire toward the heavens. 
On it he carved the words, “Never- 
theless, I live,” and above the words 
a butterfly, to suggest his invincible 
faith that in Christ Jesus death was 
only a transition, an evolution from 
the limitations of the chrysalis to the 
freedom of a life with wings. Sir 
James was a believer in Christ and 
when he came to his own passing he 
thought only of the wonderful 
awakening and he fell asleep in the 
Lord. But “if Christ hath not been 
raised” that sentence on the obelisk 


282 


is cruel irony, and the butterfly 
should be changed to a clod. 


842. Resurrection—Comfort of 


I once stood holding the hand of a 
mother and together we looked on 
the sleeping face of a lovely girl who 
passed away in her twentieth year. 
“Farewell, my sweet daughter,” the 
mother said. “I wish you joy. You 
have gone to see the Saviour and be 
with him. I shall have you again 
when he pleases. Farewell, till we 
meet again.” 

That daughter had been devoted in 
her girlhood to loving work for other 
girls poorer and less fortunate than 
herself. Her mother took up the 
work the youthful hands laid 
down, and carried it forward day by 
day for the sake of her child in 
heaven. That mother was com- 
forted; she believed in the life 
everlasting, she knew and dwelt with 
the risen Christ. 

What should we do in this world 
of loss and change without the com- 
fort of the resurrection?—Christian 
Intelligencer. 


843. Resurrection Necessary 


“Tf Christ be not risen, then is our 
preaching vain and your faith is also 
Vali fOr. Ace. 

Renan, the French infidel, wrote 
the life of Jesus and when he had 
brought it along as far as the cross 
where Jesus died, he put the word 
“Finis,” as if that was the end of it 
all, and the fellow who printed the 
book, his publisher, as unbelieving 
and even more bigoted than Renan 
himself, put on the fly-leaf after that 
lying, dismal word “Finis” a wood 
cut of the crucified Saviour. There 
he was, hanging on the cross with 
drooping head and matted hair and 
pale, blood-streaked face. Every- 
body had deserted him, the storm 
clouds had gathered in the sky and 
black-pinioned birds were circling 
through the gloom and everything 
about the scene spelled defeat. 


RESURRECTION 


844. Tomb Opened w 


“The angel of the Lord descended 
from heaven, and came and rolled 
back the stone from the door, and 
sat upon it.” Matt. 28: 2. 

In a cemetery at Hanover, Ger- 
many, there is a grave on which 
great slabs of granite and marble 
were piled, cemented together and 
fastened with steel clasps. It is the 
grave of a woman who did not 
believe that Jesus rose from the 
dead, nor that she nor any one else 
would live again after death. In her 
will she ordered her grave to be 
made so secure that if there were a 
resurrection of the dead it could 
not reach her. On the stone these 
words were engraved: “This burial- 
place must never be opened.” 

A little seed, however, chanced to 
be covered over by the stones, and, 
beginning to grow, it tried to find its 
way to the light. You would not 
think a little growing plant could 
wrench those steel clasps from their 
sockets and burst the cemented stone- 
slabs, but it did. That little seed has 
become a full-grown tree and the 
great stones have fallen over to give 
it room. 

Caiaphas and other enemies of 
Jesus thought that when the tomb in 
which his body had been laid was 
made secure, it could not be opened 
but the power of God that worked 
through a little seed in Hanover 
worked in a more marvelous way to 
open that tomb near Jerusalem. 


845. Tomb Robbed of Terror 


In the country there was a house 
which was supposed to have a 
haunted room. One day the father 
determined to put a stop to the 
superstition, so he said he would 
sleep in that room. He did so, and 
next morning came down _ smiling, 
“There,” he said, “I told you. There 
is nothing to be afraid of there.” Is 
not this exactly what Christ did for 
us? 


ji 


REVIVALS 


REVIVALS 


846. Converting Power 

“T can myself go back almost 
twelve years and remember two holy 
women who used to come to my 
meetings. It, was delightful to see 
them there, for when I began to 
preach I could tell by the expression 
of their faces they were praying for 
me. At the close of the Sabbath 
evening services they would say to 
me, ‘We have been praying for you.’ 
I said, ‘Why don’t you pray for the 


people?? They answered ‘You need 
power.’ ‘I need power,’ I said to 
myself; ‘why, I thought I had 
power. I had a large Sabbath 


school, and the largest congregation 
in Chicago. There were some con- 
versions at the time, and I was in a 
sense satisfied. But right along 
these two godly women kept pray- 
ing for me, and their earnest talk 
about ‘the anointing for special serv- 
ice’ set me thinking. I asked them 
to come and talk with me, and we 
got down on our knees. They 
poured out their hearts, that I 
might receive the anointing of the 
Holy Ghost. And there came a 
great hunger into my soul. I knew 
not what it was. I began to cry as 
never before. The hunger increased. 
I really felt that I did not want to 
live any longer if I could not have 
this power for service. I kept on 
crying all the time that God would 
fill me with his Spirit. Well, one 
day, in the city of New York—oh 
what a day! I cannot describe it; 
I seldom refer to it; it is almost 
too sacred an experience to name. 
Paul had an experience of which he 
never spoke for fourteen years. I 
can only say, God revealed himself 
to me, and I had such an experience 
of his love that I had to ask him to 
stay his hand. 

“T went to preaching again. The 
sermons were not different; I did 
not present any new truths, and yet 
hundreds were converted. I would 


283 


not be placed back where I was 
before that blessed experience if you 
would give me all Glasgow. It is a 
sad day when the convert goes into 
the church and that is the last you 
hear of him. If however you want 
this power for some selfish end, as, 
for example, to gratify your ambi- 
tion, you will not get it. ‘No flesh,’ 
says God, ‘shall glory in my presence.’ 
May he empty us of self and fill us 
with his presence.”—D. L. Moody. 


847. Evangelism—Dead 


A writer, speaking in a letter of 
conditions in his section of the coun- 
try, says: “Of course, the old evan- 
gelism is dead.” 


Indeed, what did it die of ? Who 
killed it? Is sin dead? Is death 
dead? Is eternity dead? Is God, 


and is the Word of God dead? 

Evangelism may be dead, but is it 
not then time there was a resurrec- 
tion from the dead? Does it put an 
end to sin, to say nothing any more 
about it, to nurse under the blanket 
the viper that will yet strike us 
down? Evangelism was dead in 
Sodom and Gomorrah; it was dead 
at the feast of Belshazzar; it was 
dead in the Sanhedrin that crucified 
the Saviour—the Son of God who 
preached evangelism, and who 
preached it because God so loved the 
world that he gave his only begotten 
Son to save men from sin. Evangel- 
ism has frequently been dead—but, 
alas and alas, go, look on the world 
in those days when evangelism was 
not so much as spoken! Go, look on 
the church in those dark days! 
There may be change in methods, 
but as long as men are what they 
are, as long as sin is sin, what can 
be the cry of the preacher unless it 
is, “Behold the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sin of the world.”— 
Christian Advocate. 


848. Evangelism—Drastic 


A pastor, having asked the off- 
cers of his church to remain at the 


284 


close of a Sunday evening service, 
said, “Brethren, I must make known 
to you what is upon my heart. We 
have gone one whole year without a 


single conversion and I feel that my. 


usefulness has come to an end and 
that I ought to resign.” They pro- 
tested against his contemplated 
action, assuring him they were well 
pleased with his work. “But,” said 
he, “we are saving no souls.” Turn- 
ing to one of the men he asked, 
“How long have you been a Chris- 
tian?’ “Twenty-eight years,” was 
the reply. “How long have you been 
an official of this church?” “Seven- 
teen years, pastor.” “Do you believe 
that by your personal efforts a soul 
was ever saved?” “I do not know 
of one,” was his reply. After talk- 
ing with each of the men and re- 
ceiving similar replies he said, “Now, 
brethren, unless we can bring at 
least one soul to Jesus within the 
next two weeks, I shall resign, and I 
think you men should all do like- 
wise. We ought not to occupy the 
high offices we do unless we are soul 
winners.” At the suggestion of one 
of the men they knelt in prayer to- 
gether before separating. 

The following morning one of the 
men went into his large department 
store and after calling the head clerk 
into his office said, “George, you 
have been with me fourteen years 
and are the best man I ever had. I 
want to confess that I have not done 
my duty by you. I have known that 
you were not a Christian, but have 
never recommended my Saviour to 
you. I have been alike unfaithful to 
Him and uninterested in you. If I 
may have your forgiveness I want in 
your presence to seek His.” After 
a further conversation the two men 
Knelt in prayer. They arose from 
that prayer, one having become a 
Christian and the other a_ soul 
winner. As they brushed the tears 
from their eyes the proprietor said, 
“Now, George, I want you to help 
me lead the other men of the store 


REVIVALS 


to Jesus.” They went to work and 
before night eleven men in that one 
store were saved. The next Sunday 
morning thirty-one men came into 
the church with new hope and pre- 
sented themselves for church mem- 
bership.—O. A. Newlin. 


849. Gospel—Power of 


Mr. Darwin, the evolutionist, 
visited Tierra del Fuego in 1833, and 
found a people who he thought 
were incapable of being civilized, 
and wrote: “The Fuegians are in a 
more miserable state of barbarism 
than I ever expected to have seen 
any human being.” On his second 
visit, thirty-six years later, he found 
those whom he had regarded as be- 
low domestic animals transformed by 
the Gospel into Christians, and in his 
astonishment wrote: “I certainly 
should have predicted that not all 
the missionaries in the world could 
have done what has been done. It 
is wonderful and it shames me, as I 
have always prophesied a failure. It 
is a grand success.” Being con- 
vinced that a revolutionary force 
rather than an evolutionary process 
had been at work on Tierra del 
Fuego, he addressed a letter to the 
London Missionary Society which 
concluded: “I shall feel proud if 
your committee shall think fit to elect 
me as honorary member of your 
society.” In that letter Darwin, the 
evolutionist, enclosed twenty-five 
pounds for Gospel missions.—O. A. 
Newlin. 


850. Revival Always Possible 


I have a theory, and I believe it 
to be true, that there is not a church 
or chapel or mission on earth where 
you cannot have a revival, provided 
there is a little nucleus of faithful 
people who are holding on to God 
until it comes. Four men brought 
the revival to Kells and then to all 
the North of Ireland in 1859. One 
was a farmer, one a blacksmith, one 
a school teacher and I have for- 


REVIVALS 


gotten what the other was. But 
these four men held on to God week 
after week and though at first there 
did not seem to be any result the 
fire came at last, and Ireland and 
Scotland and Wales were shaken 
by the power of God.—Torrey. 


851. Revival—Beginning of 

I remember the first revival I had 
in a church of which I was pastor. 
I had been laboring at Terre Haute 
in a revival—the first that I ever 
worked in—and I came home full of 
fire and zeal, praying all the way. 
There was a prayer that began in 
Terre Haute and ended in Indian- 
apolis, eighty miles apart. I recollect 
that, when I got home and preached, 
I gave an account of what I had seen 
in Terre Haute. The next night I 
began a series of protracted meet- 
ings. The room was not more than 
two-thirds full, and the people were 
apparently dead to spiritual things. 
On the second night I called for 
persons who would like to talk with 
me to remain. I made a strong ap- 
peal; but only one person—a poor 
German servant-girl—stopped. All 
the children of my friends, the young 
people that I knew very well, got up 
and went out; all went out except 
this one servant-girl, who answered 
to my sermon call. I remember that 
there shot through me a spasm of 
rebellion. I had a sort of feeling, 
“For what was all this precious oint- 
ment spilled? Such a sermon as I 
had preached, such an appeal as I 
had made, with no result but this!” 
In a second, however, almost quicker 
than a flash, there opened to me a 
profound sense of the value of any 
child of the Lord Jesus Christ. This 
was Christ’s child; and I was so im- 
pressed with the thought that any- 
thing of His was unspeakably 
precious beyond any _ conception 
which I could form that tears came 
into my eyes and ran down my 
_ cheeks, and I had the feeling to the 
very marrow that I would be will- 


285 


ing to work all my days among 
God’s people if I could do any good 
to the lowest and the least creature. 
My pride was all gone, my vanity 
was all gone, and I was caught up 
into a blessed sense of the love of 
God to men, and of my relation to 
Christ; and I thought it to be an un- 
speakable privilege to unloose the 
shoe-latchets from the poorest of 
Christ’s disciples. And out of that 
spirit came the natural consequences. 
—Beecher. 


852. Revival—Needed 


Society is made up of individuals, 
and “social righteousness” is the 
righteousness of individuals in the 
mass. But righteousness of char- 
acter springs from rightness of 
heart, and apart from the atonement 
and Spirit of Christ the human heart 
is wrong. The wail of Cotter Mori- 
son was that “there is no cure for a 
bad heart,” and that multitudes of 
men and women around us have got 
bad hearts. But, thank God! if 
“there is no cure for a bad heart,” 
the Spirit of God can give “a new 
heart,” from which springs right- 
eousness. We cannot have a social 
and ethical revival that will purify 
the springs of our social and na- 
tional life, except as the result of a 
spiritual revival. We cannot have a 
widespread “social righteousness,” 
apart from a widespread spiritual 
awakening in which men’s hearts are 
made right by the operation of the 
Spirit of God—(T. Waugh, 
“Twenty-three Years a Missioner.”) 
—James Hastings. 


853. Revival—Source of 


There is a plant found in sandy 
deserts and arid wastes, which is 
called Anastatica, or the Resurrection 
Flower, from a remarkable power of 
recovery which it has. When it has 
flowered, its leaves drop off, its 
branches become dry and hard, and 
the plant in a little while is seem- 
ingly dead. But so soon as it 


286 


touches water again, it gradually ex- 
pands, its leaves unfold, and life re- 
turns. It is a parable. If in its 
death-like state it is a figure of the 
backslider, its resurrection figures 
the alone source of revival; he must 
get back to the Fountain of Living 
Water again——I. Williams. 


854. Revival—The Needed 


We read that in the cities of Rus- 
sia, at the beginning of every Easter 
day, when the sun is rising, men and 
women go about the streets greet- 
ing one another with the informa- 
tion: “Christ is risen!” Every man 
knows it, but this is an illustration of 
how a man, when his heart is full of 
a thing, wants to tell it to his 
brethren. He does not care if the 
brother does know it already; he 
goes and tells it to him again. And 
so when the truth of Christ’s gos- 
pel shall come so home to each and 
every one of us, that all men shall 
be filled with the glad intelligence, 
and tell the story of how men are 
living in the freedom of their 
heavenly Father, it shall not be need- 
ful to have a revival of religion.— 
Phillips Brooks. 


855. Revivals—Excitement of 


Revivals, do they last? Converts, 
do they stick? The following story 
was related at a revival meeting in 
Glasgow. An evangelist who was 
conducting a series of meetings in 
the North of Scotland, one night, 
when going home, was accosted by a 
man, who sneeringly said, “Mr. 
C , you are creating a great deal 
of stir and commotion in this village. 
But will it last?” “Well,” said the 
evangelist, “some time ago I was 
passing a certain house. There was 
a great deal of joy, gladness, and 
excitement in that house because a 
son had been born into the family. 
A few months later I was passing 
the same house again, but there was 
no particular enthusiasm; everything 





REWARD 


had quieted down. But the boy,” he 
added, “was there all the same.” 


856. Wills Weak and Wobbly 


A hustling young solicitor for a 
farm journal was canvassing in a 
rural community, trying to make two 
subscriptions grow where only one 
grew before. He approached an old 
farmer who was leaning against a 
rickety fence in front of a dilapi- 
dated house, reflectively chewing a 
wisp of hay which dangled across 
a chin bristling with a two-weeks’ 
growth of beard. 

“My paper will be of immense 
value to you,” argued the solicitor. 
“By reading it you will be able to 
do better farming, do it more eco- 
nomically, and you will naturally 
make more money.” 

The farmer shook his head, deci- 
sively. 

“Nope,” he said, “’tain’t no use 
fer me to read yer paper, young 
feller. I ain’t farmin’ now as good 
as I know how.” 

The incident suggests the thought 
that most of us, like that farmer, 
are not doing as well as we know 
how. And the worst of it is, most 
of us never will. It isn’t instruc- 
tion and opportunities we need so 
much as incentive and determina- 
tion to make effective use of that 
which we already have. We realize 
that we can do almost anything we 
will to do, but our wills are weak 
and wobbly. 


REWARD 


857. Crowns—Corruptible 


Mr. Fitzgerald has given a very 
interesting account of his ascent of 
Aconcagua, the highest peak of the 
Andes. It is a story of difficulties 
overcome. First came the trying 
heat of the valleys, the awful dust, 
the dangerous fords, the worthless 
guides, the stampeding mules, then 


REWARD 


came slopes of rolling stones, 
treacherous fields of soft snow, the 
scaling of rock faces. As the height 
became greater, the rare air made 
breathing more difficult, caused 
weakness, sickness, and inability to 
resist the piercing cold. The ex- 
plorers camped nineteen thousand 
feet above the sea, and were unable 
to sleep on account of the cold. 
From this point an attempt was made 
to reach the summit. Staggering, 
faint and dizzy, they plodded on until 
they were only one thousand feet 
from the top, where the brave leader 
had to give up the attempt. All that 
zeal, courage and toil had so far ac- 
complished was all in vain. The 
prize was not for him. He saw the 
guide press on and reach the goal, a 
man who would never have tried 
alone to reach that great height. The 
dust, the heat, the toil, the pain had 
gone to Mr. Fitzgerald, but the crown 
of victory went to another. This is 
often the way with those who endure 
much for the corruptible crowns of 
earth. They endure the toil of the 
conflict only to win disappointment 
in the end. There is one race where 
this is not so. We must pay the 
price. There will be dust, toil, hard- 
ship, cross-bearing, but at the end 
all those who have paid the price 
will receive the crown of victory. 


858. Life Eternal 


“A friend of mine was killed,” 
says a writer in “Sunday at Home.” 
“His sister in Edinburgh, a beautiful 
girl in body and mind, dreamed three 
days afterwards that she went to her 
brother, and found him in a big 
mess-room with his companions. 
She said, ‘I thought you were dead!’ 
and at that he flung back his head 
and replied ‘Dead? No, we are only 
waiting for new uniforms—we are 
going to parade before the King.’” 
—S. S. Times. 


859. Love—Crown of 
One of the best crowns is love. 


287 


When the late King Edward of 
England opened the new docks at 
Cardiff, the press reported the fol- 
lowing reception: “Almost simul- 
taneously with the entry of the Royal 
Yacht at one end of the dock, a 
couple of steamers, crowded from 
stem to stern with little children, the 
inmates of various local benevolent 
institutions, swept in at the other. 
On one of the steamers were hun- 
dreds of trimly-clad waifs and 
strays; on the other were many deaf 
and dumb children, on whose behalf 
a large placard conveyed a message 
to his Majesty in these simple but 
eloquent terms: “We cannot shout, 
we cannot sing, but we can love our 
gracious king!” Some hearts can- 
not demonstrate as others, but they 
can love. But others of us can shout. 
Let us join with the children of the 
first Palm Sunday and say “Hosanna 
in the highest” and also “Crown him 
haordroiv al, 


860. Selfishness—Reward of 


Look over the life of Queen 
Elizabeth, and the outstanding fea- 
ture, in addition to her ability, was 
her selfishness. But follow it through 
to the end and find that she suffered 
keenest anguish. When her favorite, 
Essex, was about to be executed, 
Elizabeth said to herself and her 
courtiers, “I would save him; but I 
will not unless he humbles himself 
and asks me to.” No message came 
to the queen and Essex died. Then 
was the queen overwhelmed with re- 
morse and from that hour on, her 
pain at heart told on her physical 
health. She never could forget 
Essex. Then there came the day 
when a lady of the court lay dying. 
She sent for the queen and confessed 
to her that Essex had sent by her a 
humble message and the ring, asking 
for life; but she wished him dead, 
so had not delivered it to her 
Majesty. Elizabeth was a tigress in 
a moment; but a tigress wounded 
unto death. From that hour she did 


288 


little else but droop and moan the 
name of him she had let die. Poor, 
selfish Queen Bess suffered and died. 


God has made us capable of suffer- 


ing. We are made capable of the 
highest happiness, or the most dire 
woe. But in either case we “shall 
reap what we sow.” 


861. Work—Finished 


A minister tells about going to see 
a parishioner who was in deep afflic- 
tion. He found her embroidering a 
sofa pillow cover. He asked her to 
let him take it in his hand. He pur- 
posely turned it on the wrong side, 
and then remarked to her that it did 
not seem beautiful to him, and that 
he wondered why she should be 
wasting her time upon it. “Why, 
sir,” she replied, “you are looking 
at the wrong side! Turn it over.” 
“That is just what you are doing,” 
he replied. “You are looking at the 
wrong side of God’s workings with 
you. Down here we are looking at 
the tangled side of God’s providence ; 
but he has a plan—here a stitch and 
there a movement of the shuttle— 
and in the end a beautiful work.” 


SALVATION 


862. Cleansing Power 


At an evangelistic meeting which 
he was conducting in Edinburgh, 
Professor Drummond read part of a 
letter from a student who had fallen 
into deep sin. The last words of the 
letter were weighted with the hope- 
lessness of a lost soul. After read- 
ing the letter, the professor said: “As 
I walked through the city this morn- 
ing, I noticed a cloud like a pure 
white bank resting over the slums. 
Whence came it? The great sun had 
sent down its beams into the city 
slums, and the beams had gone 
among the puddles, and drawn out 
of them what they sought, and had 
taken it aloft, and purified it, and 


SALVATION 


there it was resting about the city, a 
cloud as white as snow. And God 
can make his saints out of material 
equally unfavorable. He who can 
make a white cloud out of a puddle 
can out of a lost soul make a miracle 
of saving grace. No soul is so far 
lost that it cannot be found.” 


863. Cry—Saved By a 


I remember, a few years ago, that 
a boy who was sent upon some 
errand on a cold winter evening, was 
overtaken by a dreadful storm, when 
the snow fell so thick, and drifted in 
such a manner, that he missed his 
way, and continuing to wander up 
and down for several hours, was 
ready to perish. About midnight a 
gentleman in the neighborhood 
thought he heard a sound, but he 
could not imagine what it was, till, 
opening his window, he distinguished 
a human voice at a great distance 
pronouncing in piteous tones, “Lost! 
lost! lost!” Humanity induced the 
gentleman to send in search of the 
person from whom the voice pro- 
ceeded, when the boy at length was 
found and preserved. Happy for 
him that he perceived his danger, 
that he cried for help, and that his 
cry was heard.—Burder. 


864. Living Water Within 


On the sands at Saltcoats there is 
a spring of fresh water, but as it is 
within the tide-mark, it is frequently 
buried beneath the briny waves. 
But every time the tide recedes the 
spring appears as fresh and full as 
ever. If there is within us what our 
Lord offers to give us, “a well of 
living water springing up within,” it 
will manifest itself. The billows of 
temptation or the flood-tide of sor- 
row and affliction may overflow for 
a season, but as sure as every living 
thing must move, so sure will it 
spring up again untainted by the con- 
tact. Its source is not in its sur- 


_roundings, but deep in the heart of 


SALVATION 


God, the Fountain of eternal life and 
love (John 4. 14) James Smith. 


865 Lost—Almost But 


In an October day a treacherous 
calm on the northern coast is sud- 
denly followed by one of the fiercest 
storms within the memory of man. 
Without warning signs a_ squall 
comes sweeping down the main, and 
the ocean leaps in its fury like a 
thing of life. The heavens seem to 
bow themselves, and form a veil of 
mirk and gloom; and above the 
voices of the storm is heard the cry 
of those on shore, “O God of mercy, 
send us those we love!” But, alas! 
there are those for whom that 
prayer cannot now avail; for float- 
ing spars and bodies washed ashore 
from which all life is sucked tell too 
plainly that some home is desolate, 
some spirit crushed. And now a 
mighty shout is heard, and all eyes 
again turn towards the sea, for 
through the darkness of the storm 
a boat is seen struggling towards the 
shore, now lost to sight, and again 
borne on the crest of the wave, 
nearer and yet nearer the harbor’s 
mouth. The climax now approaches 
in this wild race for life; and hearts 
are high with hope or chilled with 
fear, for the next wave must either 
bear them into safety or send them 
to their doom. See! there it comes, 
threatening in its vastness and twist- 
ing in its progress like some hideous 
thing of night. A cold sweat breaks 
out on those on shore, for the boat is 
lifted on its boiling crest and dashed 
with resistless fury against the 
stonework of the pier; and as a 
mighty cry of anguish rises, the men 
clinging to the wreck wave to their 
friends a last adieu, who, close at 
hand, stand agonized spectators of 
the scene! Yes, they have sur- 
mounted all the dangers which have 
proved fatal to their fellows, only to 
miss the friendly hands stretched out 
to save, and perish before the eyes, 
and be washed up lifeless at the very 


289 


feet of those they love. In all such 
cases the grief of onlookers, and of 
all who mourn their loss is aug- 
mented by the thought that though 
so near to safety they yet were lost. 
Remember that to be near the har- 
bor-mouth is not to be safe in its 
shelter—that though near to the 
kingdom of heaven you may never 
enter there; and that, in so far as 
your final salvation is concerned, 
being near to Christ is no better than 
being far away, if it never lead to a 
complete surrender of your heart to 
Him.—_W. Landels. 


866. Motive—Inner 


When Coleridge, the school boy, 
was going along the street thinking 
of the story of Hero and Leander 
and imagining himself to be swim- 
ming the Hellespont, he threw wide 
his arms as though breasting the 
waves. Unfortunately, his hand 
struck the pocket of a passer-by and 
knocked out a purse. The outer deed 
was that of a pickpocket and could 
have sent the youth to jail. The 
inner motive was that of an imagina- 
tive youth deeply impressed by the 
story he was translating from the 
Greek, and that inner motive made 
the owner of the purse his friend 
and sent young Coleridge to college. 
Thus, the philosopher tells us, the 
motive made what was outwardly 
wrong to be inwardly right. 


867. Opportunities—God Gives 


In a small western town one night, 
several commercial men came in 
from a late train to the hotel. 
Among them was one man who had 
been there many times and he knew 
the hotel as well as the bell boys, so 
he volunteered to go to his room 
alone, and not wait for a boy to 
show him the way. When he reached 
the floor his room was on he found 
it dark, but feeling sure he knew 
where the room was located, he did 


not light the match the clerk gave 


290 


him, but kept on walking along the 
dark hall. Suddenly there was 4 
cry of distress and it was found he 
had walked through the dark hall 
to the end and out through a door a 
careless servant had left open. He 
was found on the ground below with 
his neck broken and in his hand, 
tightly clasped was the unlit match. 
His intention was good, but he did 
not fulfill it. God puts opportuni- 
ties into all of our hands, but many 
of us do not use them. The com- 
mercial man needed light for guid- 
ance; he had it with him if he had 
only used the match. Let us take 
advantage of every opportunity in 
life, and thus save our lives from de- 
struction. 


868. Peace—Way to 


Bishop Whipple of Minnesota sat 
by the sick bedside of a cultured old 
judge in the southland, talking in a 
learned way of vital themes, when 
the dying man politely said: “Par- 
don me; but you know P’m facing 
the real things. Won't you talk to 
me like you'd talk to my black boy, 
Jim?” The bishop said quietly, 
“You're a sinner, like me. Jesus 
died for our sins. Trust him as a 
little child.” And the judge replied: 
“Thank you, bishop. I can get hold 
of that. That gives me peace.” 


869. Perishing—Rescue of 


Mr. Bingham, Mine Inspector of 
the State of Illinois, tells an incident 
connected with a cave-in that took 
place in an Illinois coal mine. The 
earth and coal in settling had im- 
prisoned sixty men. But it left an 
opening between where they stood 
and the outer world, through which 
a boy could barely crawl. The fore- 
man of the rescuing party said to 
Fred Evans, a boy who worked on 
the dump, “You’re just small enough 
to crawl through that opening and 
drag a hollow pipe with you. If you 
get that pipe in there we shall be 


SALVATION 


able to pump air through it to the 
men to keep them alive until we can 
dig them out. But you have to be 
mighty careful in crawling through, 
because if you jostle the coal it will 
settle down on you and instantly 
crush out your life. Are you willing 
to try it?” : 

That boy’s face was black with 
coal soot, his hand bruised from toil; 
he had been so poor all his life that 
he had never been able to learn to 
read and write, but at the same time 
he was supporting his mother. He 
looked at the foreman, and in an- 
swer to his question, at once replied, 
“il try;my, best. 

Fred stripped off all the clothing 
he could spare, put a rough cap on 
his head, grabbed the end of the pipe, 
and began his 600-foot crawl. Time 
and again the pipe ceased to move, 
and those at the outer end thought 
the boy had been entrapped, but it 
would start up, and at last a faint 
call through it announced the lad's 
safe arrival. For a week milk, air 
and water were forced through that 
pipe and then the 60 men and Fred 
were restored to their families. 

At that time John R. Tanner was 
Governor of Illinois, and hearing of 
the boy’s heroism, sent for him. 
“Youngster,” said the Governor, 
“the State of Illinois wants to 
recognize your pluck. What can I 
do for you?” Fred nervously 
twitched his fingers about his cap 
and looked frightened at the big man 
who spoke so kindly to him. But 
finally finding his voice, he replied, 
“Pd like to know how to read.” 
Needless to say, that boy got his edu- 
cation without a cent of expense to 
himself, and is now a successful 
farmer in Illinois. 

It is difficult to know which to 
admire most, the boy’s heroism, or 
his wise choice, but I am thinking 
particularly of his brave deed, and as 
to the way he gave to the world a 
fine example of unselfish action and 
undaunted pluck. 


SALVATION 


870. Salvation a Gift 


A working man in England had 
trouble with his eyes. He consulted 
his doctor, who said: “There are 
two cataracts growing over your 
eyes, and your only hope of pre- 
serving your sight is to go and see 
Dr. I would advise you to 
go at once; and don’t forget to take 
many pounds in pocket, for you 
might find the fee heavy.” 

The working man had_ twenty 
pounds in the bank and drew it all 
out. 

The specialist examined his eyes 
and said: “I am not sure whether 
you can pay the fee. I never take 
less than a hundred guineas.” “Then,” 
said the working man, “I must go 
blind and remain so.” The specialist 
replied, “You cannot come up to my 
terms and I cannot go down to 
yours, but there is another way open 
—I can perform the operation 
gratis.” 

And so to the Great Physician “no 
price we bring,” for he asks noth- 
ing (and we could pay nothing) ex- 
cept our heart’s devotion. 





871. Salvation a Gift 


A Christian lady was visiting a 
poor sickly woman, and after con- 
versing with her for a little she 
asked her if she had found salvation 
yet. “No,” she replied; “but I am 
working hard for it.” “Ah, you will 
never get it that way,” the lady said. 
“Christ did all the working when 
He suffered and died for us, and 
made complete atonement for our 
sins. You must take salvation solely 
as a gift of free, unmerited grace, 
else you can never have it at all.’— 
Clerical Library. 


872. Salvation—Concern for 


That was an awful calamity which 
befell the Titanic. She was flashing 
out her call of distress on the wire- 
less wave on that April night. The 
Carpathia made a race to reach her 


29] 


side, but the distance was too great 
to cover until the Titanic was no 
more. It is said the California was 
sufficiently near to have reached her 
and saved many or all, but either by 
misreading her message, or failing 
to heed it, she did not turn to the 
aid of her ill-fated sister. If you 
would do as much as did the officers 
of the Titanic you would certainly 
be saved tonight. If you would just 
now fly the signal of distress, and 
give God the slightest indication that 
you want to become a Christian; if 
you will but arise and walk down the 
aisle to the front here and ask Jesus 
to save you, all heaven would hurry 
to the rescue and the angels would 
be rejoicing over your conversion in 
less than five minutes. May God 
help you to come tonight—O. A. 
Newlin. 


873. Salvation—God’s Power in 


An earnest Christian man and a 
faithful reader of the Bible was 
assailed by an infidel. 

“I do not understand nor do I 
believe,” said he, “that the blood of 
Jesus Christ can wash away my 
sin.” 

“You and St. Paul quite agree on 
that subject,” answered the Bible 
student. 

“How ris 

“Turn to the first chapter of First 
Corinthians and read the eighteenth 
verse: ‘For the preaching of the 
cross is to them that perish foolish- 
ness; but unto us who are saved it 
is the power of God.’”’ 

The infidel hung his head and 
began to study the Bible. He soon 
found it to be God’s power unto sal- 
vation.—The Lutheran. 


874. Salvation—Missing 
“T flung away the keys that might 
Have open set the golden shrines 
of day, 
But clutch the keys of darkness yet. 


292 


“T hear the reapers singing, Go into 
God’s harvest; 
L that with them might have 
chosen here below, 


Grope shuddering at the gates of | 


hell.” 


He was not an old man of whom I 
am speaking now; in fact, he was 
not past 30, but he was dying. To 
the physician who sat by his side 
and who himself was an earnest 
Christian, he said: “Doctor, I have 
missed it now at last,’ and when the 
doctor asked him what it was he had 
missed he said, “I have missed the 
salvation of my soul.” “But,” said 
the doctor, “there’s time enough 
now; you know that some came at 
the eleventh hour.” “Yes,” was the 
reply, “but my eleventh hour has 
long since passed. Six months ago 
I heard the voice of God and felt 
the strivings of His spirit; some- 
thing said to me, ‘Make sure of this 
matter now, don’t put it off, now is 
the accepted time,’ but I did not do 
what I knew I ought to do. I 
grieved and insulted the Holy Spirit 
and bargained away my day of 
grace, and now for the life of me I 
can’t believe in the mercy of God for 
me.” 

The doctor spoke words of mercy, 
and told him of the long suffering 
of God, but the young man, gasping 
for breath, said, “It’s no use, doctor, 
for I can’t believe it is for me,” and 
as the pallor of death came over him 
he turned his glassy eyes to the ceil- 
ing above and, with a ring of agony, 
he cried, “My God! if I could only 
believe; if I could only believe; if I 
could only believe!” and with this 
despairing cry his soul went up to 
meet his long neglected and for- 
gotten God. 


875. Salvation—Refusing 


Once when France and England 
were at war, a French vessel had 
gone off on a long whaling voyage. 
When they came back. the crew 


SALVATION 


‘were short of water, and, being near 


an English port, they wanted to get 
it; but they were afraid they would 
be taken prisoners if they went into 
that port. Some people in the port 
saw their signal of distress, and 
sent word that they need not be 
afraid, that the war was over, and 
peace had been declared. But they 
couldn’t make those sailors believe 
it, and they didn’t dare go into port, 
although they were out of water. 
At last they made up their minds 
that they would better go in and sur- 
render their cargo and their lives to 
their enemies than to perish at sea 
without water; and when they got 
in, they found out that what had 
been told them was true, and that 
peace had been declared. There are 
many poor sinners who occupy the 
position of those sailors. They are 
thirsting for the Water of Life, and 
know that they must perish without 
it, and yet they will not receive the 
good news of salvation which offers 
them a free pardon for their sins 
and peace with God through the 
merits of Jesus Christ—Louis 
Albert Banks. 


876. Salvation—Substitutes for 


The Sydney harbor, in Australia, 
is one of the most beautiful harbors 
in the world. A vessel enters the 
harbor through what is known as 
the Heads—two mountains that lift 
their heads high above the sea; and 
after these two heads are passed, 
it is an easy harbor to enter. But 
just a little way down the coast 
there are two more heads just like 
the Heads at the harbor entrance. 
Some years ago a captain was com- 
ing in, in charge of a ship with at 
least two hundred souls on board, 
and he sighted the wrong heads. 
He was perfectly sincere, he thought 
he was right. He sighted the 
wrong heads, and he came dashing 
in against the rocks—sincere, but 
lost. “Just our best,” is not good 
enough, and can never take the place 


SALVATION 


of faith in Jesus Christ for salva- 
tion. 


877. Salvation Through Sacrifice 


The first glimpse we have of Saul 
(Paul) is when he is watching the 
stoning of Stephen. How much it 
had to do with his conversion we 
cannot tell, but we know it remained 
as a sad memory in his life. We 
have a modern story in which 
similar courage in martyrdom helped 
a man to become a believer. All of 
us have heard of “the Christian 
Chinese general,” Feng Ye-Hsiang, 
whose soldiers sing the doxology at 
meals and use Christian hymns for 
marching and drill music. He tells 
how he started toward the Christian 
life. 

He was a private during the Boxer 
disturbance of 1900, and was at 
Paotingfu) when the missionaries 
were killed. He stood by and 
watched as they were put to death. 
“The fearlessness, devotion, and 
martyr death of one of the women 
missionaries deeply impressed” him, 
and soon afterward he studied the 
religion which had given her such 
a spirit, and himself became a Chris- 
tian. It is likely that he has done and 
will do more for the cause of Christ 
in China than the martyred mis- 
sionary could have done if she had 
been spared. No one would have 
chosen such a price for such a re- 
sult, and we are never to explain 
the calamity by its results, though 
we may understand a little better 
why God permitted it; but if we 
could ask the good woman whose 
life was laid down whether she 
feels that it was worth dying for, 
what would she probably say? Ifa 
religion is worth living for, may it 
not be worth dying for? When we 
find our lives bringing others to 
Christ, we are glad. May we not 
also be glad if we find our deaths 
bringing a new Saul of Tarsus to 
his senses and his Saviour? 


293 


878. Salvation—Uttermost 


We have race snobs and money 
snobs and religious snobs. Saxons 
look at Slavs and say, “Hopeless.” 
Rich look at the poor and say, 
“Worthless.” And so-called Chris- 
tians look at sinners and say, “Un- 
reachable depravity.” It is a lie! 

Do you remember that old man 
in Quo Vadis who, posing as a 
Christian, entered the homes of be- 
lievers and frequented their meeting 
places and reported their names to 
Nero? Day after day scores were 
dragged to judgment. At length 
the Christians discovered the identity 
of the spy. I suppose that some of 
them said hard things about him. 
Perhaps they said, “Of all the fiends — 
in hell, none is so base as he.” Then 
they counted those betrayed and said, 
“Surely, here at last, is one whom 
nothing will ever reach. He is 


damned while he is yet alive.” But 
the story goes on. The old spy 
sat high in the Coliseum and 
watched the Christians die. Saw 


them fall before the lions with a 
song on their lips. Saw them 
covered with tar and burned on 
crosses with their eyes on the Ce- 
lestial City smiling into the face of 
Christ. He was caught. Going to 
Nero he calls, “I, too, am a Chris- 
tian.” In a little while, one more 
cross is lifted in that same arena 
and the victim is an old man. He 
denounces Nero before the throng, 
then lifting his eyes to Heaven 
whispers, “Jesus, Jesus,” till the soul 
had followed the path of vision. 
Who dares say, “A hopeless case!” 


879. Salvation—W holesale 


Julia Ward Howe once wrote to 
an eminent Senator of the United 
States in behalf of a man who was 
suffering great injustice. He replied, 
“T am so much taken up with plans 
for the benefit of the race that I 
have no time for individuals.” She 
pasted this in her album, with this 


294 


comment. “When last heard from, 
our Master had not reached this alti- 
tude.” 


If we have no interest in in- 


dividuals, says an exchange, in this— 


connection, then we have no real 
interest in Christ and he who waits 
till he can save many souls will 
never save one.—Ram’s Horn. 


880. Salvation—Working Out 


Once upon a time a little pilgrim 
found herself on the road to heaven. 
She was given a fine white robe, and 
she knew that only if she kept it 
spotless would the gates of the gol- 
den city open to her. Very carefully 
she picked her steps, for the way 
was both rough and muddy. But as 
she went on she was horrorstruck to 
find that not only was it rough and 
muddy, but it was actually built of 
pilgrims who had fallen in the 
march and who lay bleeding and un- 
heeded in the mire. Presently one 
of the unhappy creatures cried to the 
little pilgrim, “Help! Help me up 
for Christ’s sake!” The little pil- 
grim was about to stoop, when sud- 
denly she remembered her white 
garment. “No, no,’ she exclaimed, 
“Ts daren’t.,, Lf ' 1 ‘touched ¢ you’ 1 
might be defiled.” And she passed 
on. But even as she passed on she 
was aghast to see that the edge of 
her white robe was stained with 
scarlet. At every step she took the 
stain spread till at last her whole 
garment was scarlet. “What have 
I done?” she cried. But there was 
no reply save the moans of the fal- 
len pilgrims. 

In despair she turned back. “If 
I cannot keep my robe white,” she 
said, “at least I can help a lost 
sister.” So she knelt down on the 
dreadful road and put her arms ten- 
derly round the poor pilgrim who 
had craved for aid. By exerting 
all her strength she managed to 
pull the fallen one out of the mire; 
then hand in hand, with downcast 
eyes the two passed on together. At 


SALVATION 


last, sad and ashamed, they reached 
the golden gates. No hope had they 
of entering, for the robe of the one 
was scarlet, and the robe of the 
other was filthy rags. But, just as 
they reached the gates, lo, the scar- 
let robe of the one and the filthy 
rags of the other turned in a mo- 
ment to robes of dazzling white— 
white so dazzling that even the 
angels could not look. And the 
gates of heaven fell back. 


881. Saved by a Song 

Rev.. D. S. Toy, and) Franke 
Dickson were laboring in Grant’s 
Pass, Oregon, in connection with the 
Pacific Coast campaign. At one of 
their services they had sung the 
hymn, “Lord, I’m Coming Home,” 
the chorus of which is: 


“Coming home, coming home, 
Never more to roam; 

Open wide Thine arms of love, 
Lord, I’m coming home.” 


The sheriff of the county came 
from the service, retired to his bed, 
but his wife noticed that he was ex- 
tremely restless. At 2 o’clock in the 
morning she spoke to him, saying, 
“Husband, what is “it” thats 
troubling you?” He said, with a sob, 
“Tt is that hymn they sang tonight.” 
She said, “What hymn?” He re- 
plied, “It goes something like this— 


‘’ve wandered away from God’—I_ 


am so far away I fear I never will 
be saved.” Then his wife said, “But 
why do you not say the rest of the 
song and settle it?” He said, “What 
is it, I have forgotten?” Then she 
told him, “‘I have wandered far 
away from God, now I’m coming 
home.’” Instantly he said it and he 
meant it—and closing his eyes he 
fell asleep like a child. 

The next morning he hitched up 
his horse and drove sixty miles 
across the country to tell his boys 
that he had found Christ, and in- 
tended to be a Christian and become 
a member of a church. 


SALVATION 


882. Saved by Destruction of 
W orks 
As is well known, Sir James 


Thornhill painted the inside of the 
cupola of St. Paul’s Cathedral. 
After having finished one of the 
compartments, he gradually retired 
backwards, to see how it looked at 
a distance. Intent on the painting, 
he had aproached to the very edge 
of the scaffolding, and was in the 
utmost danger of falling from it, 
when a person, perceiving his sit- 
uation, and fearing to alarm him, by 
calling out, snatched up a brush and 
disfigured his painting. The artist 
sprang forward in great displeasure, 
but was soon impressed with grat- 
tude, when he discovered the danger 
in which he had been placed, and 
saw that, by this way, his life had 
been preserved. 


883. Saving Knowledge 


“T am the resurrection and the life.” 
Two Korean women stood watching 
a funeral procession on its way to 
the foreign cemetery. “What sight 
is this?” said one. “The burying of 
the missionary’s son,” answered the 
other. “That is very, very sad,” re- 
plied the first. In Korea a son is 
the most precious of all possessions. 
“Tt is not so bad for them as for us.” 
said the other sadly. “They know 
something that makes them sure that 
' they will get their children back 
some day. We know nothing about 
how to get ours back again.” 


884. Simplicity of Salvation 

A lifeboat puts out to a founder- 
ing ship. Is it needful before one 
leaps from the sinking vessel into 
the frail lifeboat, that every single 
thing about it shall be explained to 
him, as to who made it, and of what 
materials it is constructed? No: it 
is only in matters of religion that 
men act so strangely. In all the 
great welfares of life, men do not 
undertake to teach the philosophy 


295 


of things before the benefit of those 
things can be availed of; and they 
ought not to do it in matters so im- 
portant and vital as the question of 
their souls’ salvation. That which is 
essential is reciprocal love between 
God and the human soul—H. W. 
Beecher. 


885. Speech—Faulty, Effective 


In Moody’s early days an over- 
zealous critic, who was not an over- 
active worker, took him to task for 
his defects in speech. “You oughtn’t 
to attempt to speak in public, Moody. 
You make many mistakes in gram- 
mar.” “I lack a great many things; 
but [’m doing the best I can with 
what I’ve got. But, look here, my 
friend, you’ve got grammar enough; 
what are you doing with it for 
Jesus?” 


886. Witness—Faithful 


The father of Senator Dolliver 
was essentially a preacher of the 
gospel, who regarded the “call” to 
the ministry as imperative under any 
and all circumstances, and never per- 
mitted an opportunity to speak to a 
man about his soul to pass him un- 
used. 

Shortly before the death of 
“Father” Dolliver, who made his 
home with his son in Washington, 
the Senator received a formal call 
from a member of a Porto Rican 
commission. “Father” Dolliver 
happened to be present, and was 
introduced to the commissioner. 

As a matter of fact, coming from 
a country which is Catholic, the 
commissioner was an adherent of 
that faith. After having finished his 
business with the Senator, the Porto 
Rican doctor and “Father” Dolliver 
engaged in conversation. At once 
the pioneer Methodist preacher asked 
the Porto Rican gentleman about his 
soul. 

When the commissioner had gone, 
Senator Dolliver, who had overheard 
part of the conversation between his 


o 


296 


father and their distinguished guest, 
referred to the matter, and asked 
“Father” Dolliver whether he had 
not been just a little hard on their 
Porto Rican friend. 
senior Dolliver replied: “No! We 
had a fine talk, and, besides, my 
business is to preach Christ to every 
creature.” 

On the day when “Father” Dol- 
liver’s mortal remains were to be 
carried forth from the house of his 
son, a large bouquet of beautiful 
flowers was sent in, attached to 
which was the name of the com- 
missioner from Porto Rico, and at 
the simple services which were held 
one of the most respectful and 
deeply affected friends present was 
the Porto Rican. “And in offering 
condolence to me,” said the Senator, 
“the tears streamed over his cheeks 
as he said, ‘I hope you will not think 
my presence at your father’s funeral 
an intrusion, but I wanted to come 
and look upon his kind old face 
again, for he was the first man who 
ever spoke to me about my soul.’” 
—C. E. World. 


887. Witnessing Hands 


In a meeting of the Evangelistic 
Committee of Philadelphia, Mr. 
Asher told of his services held at 
Moyamensing prison and the House 
of Correction. At the latter place 
about forty prisoners held up their 
hands for prayer. As they are not 
permitted to sit out in the corridors 
but must listen through the iron 
bars of their cell doors, when the 
speaker urged all those within the 
sound of his voice to accept Christ 
and turn from their sins, he saw one 
graceful, delicately fashioned hand 
of a woman extended imploringly 
from her cell. She could not see the 
preacher nor could the preacher see 
her. But she heard the message and 
the message touched her heart. O, 
that there were some way that the 
sinner could have the eye of the 
soul opened to behold the awfulness 


To this the: 


SATAN 


of sin before plunging into it! 
After the fall the eyes of our fore 
parents, Adam and Eve, were 
opened and they knew evil as well 
as good. This knowledge of the 
world, the knowledge of evil, does 
not make us better but worse. The 
best man is not the one who has re- 
formed after plunging into the 
deepest sin. The best man is the 
one whose eye is opened before he 
plunges. Turn, sinner, from the 
path of sin or you may be the one to 
raise the hand imploringly through 
the bars. 


SATAN 


888. Antichrist—Picture of 


In the frescoes of Signorelli we 
have “The Teaching of Antichrist” 
—no repulsive figure, but a grand 
personage in flowing robes, and with 
a noble countenance, which at a dis- 
tance might easily be taken for the 
Saviour. To him the crowd are 
eagerly gathering and listening, and 
it is only when you draw close that 
you can discover in his harder and 
cynical expression, and from the 
evil spirit whispering in his ear, that 
it is not Christ—Augustus J. C. 
Hare. 


889. Apostates 


In the long line of portraits of the 
Doges, in the palace at Venice, one 
space is empty, and the semblance 
of a black curtain remains as a mel- 
ancholy record of glory forfeited. 
Found guilty of treason against the 
state, Marino Falieri was beheaded, 
and his image, as far as possible, 
blotted from remembrance. 

Every one’s eye rests longer upon 
the one dark vacancy than upon any 
one of the fine portraits of the mer- 
chant monarchs; and so the apos- 
tates of the Church are far more 
frequently the theme of the world’s 
talk than the thousands of good men 
and true who adorn the doctrine of 


SATAN 


God our Saviour in all things— 
Spurgeon. 


890. Chaplain of Lunatics 


A German clergyman, who was 
traveling, stopped at a hotel much 
frequented by wags and jokers. The 
host, not being used to having a 
clergyman at his table, looked at him 
with surprise; the guests used all the 
raillery of wit upon him without 
eliciting a remark. The clergyman 
ate his dinner quietly, apparently 
without observing the gibes and 
sneers of his neighbors. One of 
them, at last, in despair. at his for- 
bearance, said to him: “Well, I 
wonder at your patience!. Have 
you not heard all that has been said 
to you?” “Oh, yes, but I am used 
to it. Do you know who I am?” 
“No, sir.” “Well, I will inform you. 
I am chaplain of a lunatic asylum; 
such remarks have no effect upon 
me.” 


891. Devil—Agents of 


John Thomas, a missionary of In- 
dia, was once accosted in the 
presence of many natives by a 
Brahman, who said: “Do you not 
preach that the devil leads men to 
sin?” “Yes,” answered Thomas. 
“Then without doubt,” argued the 
Brahman, “all the guilt of sin must 
be laid upon him and man goes out 
free.” The faces of the natives 
gleamed with joy at the wisdom of 
the Brahman, but just then Thomas 
noticed a boat with several people 
on a stream nearby. With the 
adroitness of mind for which he was 
known, Thomas said to the Brah- 
man: “Do you see that boat? If I 
were to send some of my friends 
over there to rob and kill those men, 
who would have to bear the penalty 
of the law? I, who instigated the 
crime, or they who carried out my 
suggestion?” “Surely,” said the 
Brahman, “you would have to suffer 
the penalty of death together.” 
“Very well, Brahman,’ concluded 


297 


Thomas, “if you sin with the devil 
you will surely be punished with 
him.” This argument holds good in 


civilized countries as well as in 
India. 


892. Devil—Bequeathed to 


It is reported that the Finnish 
courts have upheld the title of the 
will of an atheist who bequeathed 
his farm, on his death, to the devil. 
In accordance with the finding of 
the court, the wish of the deceased 
is to be carried out by leaving the 
land absolutely untouched by human 
hands and allowing it to revert to 
the wilderness condition. We con- 
fess to being somewhat startled by 
the question that arose in our mind 
as we read the account. Do things 
that are left to themselves naturally 
and of necessity go to the devil? A 
great many things seem to. To let 
farms, and some much more val- 
uable things, go to the devil, all that 
is needed to be done is to let them 
run wild. 


893. Devil—Lack of the 


In the “Lives of the Saints’ it is 
related that one day when St. Mar- 
tin of Tours was praying in his cell, 
the devil came to him, arrayed in 
light, clothed in royal robes and 
wearing a crown of gold. Twice 
the devil told the saint he was 
Christ. 

“T am come in judgment,” he said. 
“Adore me.” 

“Where,” asked Martin, “are the 
marks of the nails? Where the 
piercing of the spear? Where the 
crown of thorns? When I see the 
marks of the Passion I shall adore 
my Lord.” At these words the 
devil disappeared.—S. Baring-Gould. 


894. Devil—Spirit of 

Cesar defended himself till the 
dagger of a friend pierced him; then 
in indignant grief he covered his 
head with his mantle and accepted 
his fate. You can forgive the open 


298 


blow of a declared enemy against 
whom you are on your guard; but 
the man that lives with you on terms 
of the greatest intimacy for years, 
so that he learns your ways and 
habits, the state of your affairs and 
your past history—the man whom 
you so confide in and like that you 
communicate to him freely much that 
you keep hidden from others, and 
who, while still professing friend- 
ship, used the information he has 
gained to blacken your character and 
ruin your peace, to injure your 
family or damage your business,— 
this man, you know, has much to 
repent of. —M. Dods. 


895. Devil—There Is a 


It is difficult for the normal man 
to understand such a criminal as Dr. 
Arthur Warren Waite, of New 
York, must be, if he is guilty of the 
charge of having poisoned his father- 
in-law and mother-in-law during 
their recent visit to him in New 
York. The father-in-law, Dr. John 
E. Peck, was a millionaire drug 
manufacturer of Grand Rapids, 
Mich., and as both he and his wife 
were advanced in life the daughter 
whom Dr. Waite married soon 
would have had her half of the 
large estate. Mrs. Peck’s body was 
cremated before suspicion was 
aroused, and Mr. Peck’s was about 
to be when a telegram signed with 
a fictitious name prevented its cre- 
mation and led to a chemical analysis 
that revealed poison in the stomach 
and brain. 

The District Attorney’s investiga- 
tions in New York give, it is al- 
leged, the key to the crime. Waite, 
it is charged, was maintaining two 
homes at an expense of $50,000 a 
year, and he needed more money im- 
mediately to maintain the pace. Be- 
ginning life with unusually brilliant 
professional prospects and marrying 
a wealthy girl, a career of happiness 
and honor seemed almost assured 
him. 


SATAN 


What is the moral? That it is an 
extremely dangerous thing to monkey 
with sin. The devil always leaves 
the marks of his claws on all who 
choose him for a companion. Some 
people escape with only the marks, 
others get so much enmeshed that 
they can never climb out of the pit. 
Gradually their whole natures change 
and from men they are converted 
into fiends. 

Are there a personal devil and a 
burning hell of fire and brimstone? 
Ask Billy Sunday, if you want an 
emphatic answer. But whether there 
is or not, men can create for them- 
selves a mighty good imitation of 


both.—Baltimore Sun, March 25, 
1916. 
896. Devil’s Method 


It is said there was once an abbot 
who desired a piece of ground that 
lay close to his land. The owner re- 
fused to sell it, but after much per- 
suasion consented to lease it. The 
abbot leased it, for a stipulated rent, 
but he could only get it for the 
length of time required for one crop. 
He at once took possession of it, and 
sowed it with acorns, a crop which 
required many years. 

In the same way the devil seeks 
to get into the hearts of men. He 
does not ask for the whole of their 
life, all the time, only serve him in 
their early days, and then they can 
pay attention to religion in old age; 
or just give him a portion of their 
time and the rest they can give to 
God, knowing that this is only a 
snare to catch the unwary, and lead 
them into captivity. He says: 


“Be mine for one short hour and 
then 
Be all thy life the happiest man of 


” 


men. 


But sad to say that one short 
hour of devil’s service often means 
a lifetime of misery, and ruin here- 
after. 


Po >, Hoey 


SATAN 


897. Devils—Powerless 

Some years ago an insane man, 
in a New England town, rose from 
his seat in the midst of a large 
assembly, and seizing with a great 
deal of energy one of the pillars 
that sustained the gallery of the 
church, declared aloud that he was 
going to pull it down. Had another 
“Samson Agonistes” suddenly ap- 
peared, and declared himself ready 
to bow between the pillars of an- 
other of Dagon’s temples, there 
could hardly have been a greater 
consternation. The people, amid the 
outcries, and faintings, and general 
confusion, yielded to the most foolish 
fears. Nor did they recover their 
self-possession, and quietly resume 
their seats, until another, significantly 
pointing to the large and _ strong 
pillar which had been threatened, 
calmly said, “Let him try—let him 
try.” 

This proposition restored order 
and confidence at once. The house 
did not fall, and the services went on. 
And so, when men insanely threaten 
to pull down the pillars that the 
skill of the Divine Architect has 
reared and holds up, we are too 
easily moved with alarm, and too 
slow to consider the strength of the 
structure. 

The skeptic, the scoffer, the 
blasphemer, the persecutor, boast of 
their power, and threaten to overturn 
Christianity, explode religion, con- 
fute the Bible, and introduce a new 
order of things. We have heard 
of such startling threats before. Let 
him try. Something has hitherto 
survived such assaults, and there 
may be some of God’s’ work 
left after the devil has done 
his worst. If a man thinks to bom- 
bard Gibraltar with boiled potatoes, 
“Let him try!” One who knew man 
in his weakness and his strength, 
has said:—‘‘Heaven and earth shall 
pass away, but my words shall not 
pass away.” 


299 


898. Doctrine—Fake 


This running after every religious 
fanatic who starts some doctrine of 
the devil reminds me of the old 
Arkansas farmer who, when asked 
what was the matter with his hogs, 
they were so poor, replied, “When 
I lost my voice a year ago I could 
not call them to their feed, so I got 
a big stick and hammered on the 
crib and they soon learned that 
was a call to their corn. They were 
doing well until three weeks ago 
when some woodpeckers came in here 
and went to pounding on the old 
dead trees. My hogs ran in the 
direction of the noise, thinking it was 
my call to their feed. When they 
came running and squealing the 
frightened woodpeckers would fly 
to another dead tree and the hogs 
would run to that part of the woods. 
They have just about ran my hogs 
to death.” I hope the church will 
cease running after these religious 
woodpeckers. Much so-called “new 
thought” is old nonsense—O. A, 
Newlin. 


899. Foes Within 


With the state it is the same as 
with the individual, the worst 
enemies are those that are within. 
As a man’s most deadly foes are his 
own passions, so a state’s foes are a 
certain type of its own Citizens. 

The judge who misapplies the law, 
the official who takes bribes, the 
politician who uses his influence to 
liberate criminals, the big business 
man who crushes a weak opponent 
or oppresses his employees, the stock 
shark who gobbles up the public’s 
savings, and the host of others who 
profit from evildoing—these are the 
men who endanger America. 


goo. Law—Respect for 

You laugh at prohibition laws. 
Vhe libertine laughs at the marriage 
laws. The anarchist laughs at the 
property laws. Watch out that your 


300 


son does not laugh at all the laws! 
Let’s quit laughing at any law!— 
Colonel Dan Morgan Smith. 


gor. Satan—Selfishness of 


A minister went to a prominent 
church member for help to bury a 
poor man. As he handed him five 
dollars he said, “I wonder if these 
calls will ever stop?” “Do you want 
them to stop?” was the retort. “No,” 
came the reply; “for if they did 
I should become as selfish as the 
devil.”—-C. E. World. 


go2. Satan’s Partner 


“There was a man who never did 
Do as his soul desired, 
Whose promptings never reached 
the place 
To which they had aspired 
Because he was afraid. 


“He tried to preach, but when he 
saw 
His congregation there, 
The things he thought they should 
be told, 
To tell he did not dare, 
Because he was afraid. 


“When brainless louts right loudly 
clapped 
Some wretched vaudeville bill, 
He’d lend his clatter to the throng, 
He didn’t dare keep still, 
Because he was afraid. 


“All through his life the imp of fear 
Did dog his steps about, 
He never said to him, ‘Be gone!’ 
Nor put the imp to rout, 
Because he was afraid. 


“He made no move without the imp 
And so the two became 
Inseparable as breath to life 
Or as the air to flame, 
Because he was afraid.” 
—Anthony Ewer. 


Only the man who has peace with 
God through Jesus Christ can have 
perfect freedom from the thralldom 
of fear. 


SATAN 


g03. Satan’s Rage 

Satan hates the slightest approach 
to Jesus. An old writer says, that 
Satan, whenever he knows his time 
is short, exercises his power all the 
more fiercely; “like an outgoing ten- 
ant that cares not what mischief he 
does” before leaving the house. So 
with Satan here. Rather than give 
up the soul, he will tear it, throw 
it down, make it wallow and foam, 
insomuch that it is “rent sore,” and 
“he was as one dead; insomuch 
that many said, He is dead.”—F. 
Whitfield. 


904. Satan’s Traps 


A missionary of MHoffental in 
Labrador writes: “One spring we 
noticed that on four consecutive 
Sundays large numbers of seals 
found their way into the bay, where 
they played a long time in full view 
of our station. On the week days, 
however, not a single seal was to be 
seen. On the fourth Sunday when 
the herd of seals had appeared, I 
noticed a group of Eskimoes sitting 
on the rocks along the shore. I 
asked them why they refrained from 
killing the seals. 

“One of them replied: ‘Have you 
not noticed that this is the fourth 
Sunday on which large herds of 
seals came into our bay, but that 
not a seal shows itself during the 
week ?’ 

“‘Ves? T answered, ‘I have noticed 
that.’ 

“‘So you see,’ continued the Es- 
kimo, ‘that the matter is of Satan, 
who has set a trap for us in order 
to get us to transgress a command 
of the Lord. But we will not do 
that.’ 

“And soon after their faithfulness 
was rewarded by the capture of 
large numbers of the seals during 
the week.” 


g05. Sinner’s Ignorance 
There is a story of a prodigal who 


SELF 


came back from the far country 
and could not find his father’s house. 
He wandered on and on, and at last 
in the gathering night, sank down, 
heart-sick and faint, on the steps of 
a little cottage. Without knowing it 
he was on his own father’s door- 
step. Inside sat the aged father and 
mother, their hearts hungering for 
their long-lost boy. Outside, bowed 
and crushed and longing for love 
and for home, lay the weary, home- 
sick son—on the very threshold of 
home, but not knowing it. 

So near to the gates of heaven is 
every human soul that is penitent, 
weary of sin, longing for divine 
mercy and love. There are many 
who are not yet in Christ’s kingdom, 
but who have at least some desire 
for heaven’s peace. They do not 
know where to find what they seek. 
But close by them is one of heaven’s 
gates and they have but to arise in 
their penitence and enter into the 
Father’s house. —J. R. M. 


906. Spiritual Warfare 


The greatest athlete in Berlin 
is weakness itself in the grasp of 
the fierce gorilla that can twist a gun 
barrel like a rotten stick. Just as 
helpless are we to wrestle with 
spiritual wickedness in high places 
without the armor of God and the 
sword of the Spirit which that great 
gorilla, the Devil, can neither bend 
nor break. The weapons of our 
(gorilla) warfare are not carnal, 
but spiritual. “Put on the whole 
armor of God that ye may be able 


to stand” (Eph. 6. 11).—James 
Smith. 
907. Worship—Hero 


Splendid was that festival at 
Czsarea at which Herod Agrippa, 
in the pomp and pride of power, en- 
tered the theatre in a robe of sil- 
ver, which glittered, says the his- 
_ torian, with the morning rays of the 
sun, so as to dazzle the eyes of the 
assembly and excite general admira- 


301 


tion. Some of his flatterers set up 
the shout, “A present god!” Agrippa 
did not repress the impious adula- 
tion which spread through the 
theatre. At that moment he looked 
up and saw an owl perched over his 
head on a rope, and Agrippa had 
been forewarned that when next he 
saw that bird, “at the height of his 
fortune,’ he would die within five 
days. The fatal omen, according to 
Josephus, pierced the heart of the 
King, who with deep melancholy ex- 
claimed, “Your god will soon suffer 
the common lot of mortality.” He 
was immediately struck, in the 
language of the sacred volume, by 
an angel. Seized with violent pains, 
he was carried to his palace, lingered 
five days in extreme agony, being 
“eaten of worms,” and so died.— 
Francis Jacox. 


SELF 


908. Consulting the Architect 


An architect complains that many 
of his clients come and ask him to 
design a house for them, only to 
let him speedily discover that they 
have already designed it for them- 
selves. What they really want is the 
sanction of their own plan, and the 
satisfaction of seeing him draw on 
paper what they have fully in their 
own minds. In very much the same 
fashion we often go to the Great 
Architect with our lives. We ask 
for wisdom and guidance, like Sol- 
omon; but we have already planned 
how we will build our fortunes and 
shape our course; and it is not his 
way we are seeking, but his approval 
of ours—Sunday School Chronicle. 


909. Self—Clothing 

An Indian and a white man at- 
tended the same meeting of a mis- 
sionary and both were convicted of 
their sinfulness. In a short time the 
Indian was rejoicing over the grace 
of God which he had experienced; 
the white man was long downcast 


302 


and full of despair until the Sun of 
Righteousness shone in his heart 
also. Some time later he said to the 
Indian, “How was it that you could 
rejoice in Jesus so soon, while I had 
such a hard struggle before peace en- 
tered my heart?” “Brother, I will 
answer you,” said the Indian. “Sup- 
pose a chief would approach us both 
and say, ‘I will give you new clothes.’ 
You look at your own, which are 
pretty good and say, ‘Mine will do 
for a while yet, thank you!’ But I 
look at my soiled and torn clothes 
and say, ‘I need others badly enough, 
and accept the gracious gift.’ So, 
brother, you tried your own 
righteousness a while longer, thought 
it would do, but I had none, so was 
very glad to accept the offer of the 
Righteousness of Christ and could 
soon rejoice in him.” 

Friend, you perhaps are also 
troubled to a certain extent about 
eternity and what that awful 
word would mean, were you to die 
tonight. Why not look away from 
self and look to Christ, the author 
and finisher of faith, and accept 
those garments of righteousness in 
which we may appear before God? 


910. Self—Freedom From 


It is one of the grand tested facts 
of life, though it sound a paradox, 
that the way to escape from our 
worst miseries is to escape from 
ourselves, to lose ourselves in some 
large human interest outside of our- 
selves. Longfellow’s “Bridge” has 
this as its central idea, and the 
familiar words will gain an added 
value to us if we perceive their drift. 
In the first verses the singer is ab- 
sorbed with his own burden—and 
the music to which they have been 
set sings the pathos of them into 
our hearts as we read them. 


How often, O how often, 
I had wished that the ebbing tide 
Would bear me away on its bosom 
O’er the ocean wild and wide. 


SELF 


For my heart was hot and restless, 
And my life was full of care, 
And the burden laid upon me 
Was greater than I could bear. 


Few who sing the song observe 
the turn of thought which occurs 
at this point. 


But now it has fallen from me, 
It is buried in the sea; 

And only the sorrow of others 
Throws its shadow over me. 


And I think how many thousands 
Of care-encumbered men, 

Each bearing his burden of sorrow, 
Have crossed the bridge since then. 


Relief came to him when he 
turned from morbidly brooding upon 
his own cares and lost himself in 
thought about his fellowman. 


g1r. Self—Love of 


A young artist had produced an 
exquisite picture, the most success- 
ful of all his efforts, and even his 
master found nothing in it to criti- 
cise. But the young artist was so 
enraptured with it that he in- 
cessantly gazed at his work of art, 
and really believed that he would 
never be able to excel what he had 
already produced. One morning, as 
he was about to enjoy anew the con- 
templation of his picture, he found 
his master had entirely erased his 
work of art. Angry, and in tears, he 
ran to his master and asked the 
cause of this cruel treatment. The 
master answered, “I did it with wise 
forethought. The painting was 
good, but it was at the same time 
your ruin.” “How so?” asked the 
young artist. ‘My beloved pupil,” 
replied the master, “you love no 
longer your art in your picture, but 
only yourself. Believe me, it was 
not perfect, even if it did appear 
so; it was only a study, and attempt. 
Take your pencil and see what your 
new creation will be, and do not 
repent of the sacrifice.” The student 


—— 





SELF 


seized his pencil and produced his 
masterpiece, “The Sacrifice of 
Iphigenia.” His name was Timan- 
thes.—Christian Age. 


g12z. Self First 


Some years ago a man was dig- 
ging for gold in Colorado, and after 
some years of embarrassing failure 
was more successful and soon came 
into possession of a modest fortune. 
He at once determined to let the 
world know he was on the stage of 
action. Two things he would do, 
erect a theater in Denver that would 
stand as a monument to his name, 
and enter politics and land a job in 
Washington. His wife, who had 
stood by him through all those try- 
ing years of unsuccessful mining, 
was a little too plain to accompany 
him in Washington society, so he 
put her away and took another wife 
who could move more gracefully in 
public circles. When his Denver 
building was nearing completion, he 
came up from Washington and 
found the decorator finishing the 
life-size painting of Shakespeare on 
the ceiling just over the stage. 
“What are you doing there?” asked 
the proud owner of the building, 
“Whose picture are you painting?” 
“This is Shakespeare,” said the artist 
“Shakespeare? Who is he?” “Will 
Shakespeare, don’t you know of 
him?” ‘Was he ever in Denver?” 
“No, he was never here, but he was 
one of the world’s greatest men.” 
“Did he ever do anything for Den- 
mere NOt) directly; but. vs. 67? 
“Look here, I don’t want any 
foolishness here. I don’t want a 
man’s picture up there who never 
was in Denver and never did any- 
thing for Denver. I have been here 
and I have done a thing or two 
around here. You rub him out and 
put me there.” “The specifications 
call for Shakespeare, that’s why I’m 
putting him here.” “I want you to 


_ know, sir, that my money is paying 


for this work. It shall be as I 


303 


say. Just rub him out and put me 
there.” The artist of course had 
plenty paint, so Shakespeare was 
rubbed out and the old miner was 
put there. 

His Washington job soon expired 
and he lost all his money including 
his memorial theater, picture and 
all, and when they were gone his 
new wife who came with them went 
with them. The old miner went back 
to the mines to dig and soon became 
a suffering invalid. The only hands 
that ministered to him in his afflic- 
tion were those of his former wife 
whom he had deserted, and she was 
the only mourner at his grave. How 
true to life is the picture Jesus here 
painted. This fellow rubbed every- 
body else out and he alone was on 
the stage of action. There are many 
to-day who act as if the whole world 
were made for them. If you would 
have your life rich and full and ac- 
ceptable unto God, give your life to 
making others happy. May the Lord 
help us to make room in our lives 
for the other fellow.—O. A. Newlin. 


913. Self Last 


Vacation was nearly over and he 
was going back to college. A strong, 
manly, clean fellow, his mother’s 
eyes followed him as he moved 
about her room. It was only in her 
room that she could watch him, for 
she was a prisoner there. His strong 
arms had somehow acquired the 
knack of lifting the slight form from 
couch to easy chair in the most com- 
fortable manner possible, and his 
hands could arrange the pillows at 
exactly the right angle. 

“Tf I don’t make good in any 
other profession I can qualify as a 
nurse,” he used to say in answer to 
her praise, his clear eyes smiling 
into hers. 

“Yes, but you will make good,” 
she always assured him confidently. 
He was going back to college, and 
she was going on a longer journey, 
though he did not know it. He 


304 


did not read the signs that were so 
patent to others. Then came the 
day when she must tell him. 

“You will make good, of course, 


son,” she assured him. “But success © 


as it looks from where I am and 
as it may look from where you are, 
may be different, for it is what we 
put into the world and not what we 
try to draw out of it that makes 
living a success. The only sure 


working rule is to count your- 
self third. Say it, Jamie—‘I am 
third.’ ” 


“T am third,” repeated the boy. 

“There will be plenty who will 
tell you to look out for Number 
One, but you can do it best by the 
rule of three. You won't forget, 
will you?” she urged wistfully. 
“Promise me you won't forget; now 
write the words where you can see 
them now and then.” 

“T won’t forget, and I'll read them 
every day,” he promised. 

The mother presently went on her 
way through the gates that only 
open outward, and the boy went 
back to his work. But on the 
study table in his room, among 
the litter of books and _ papers, 
was always one card in clear 
script, a little apart from the com- 
mon patraphernalia—“James the 
Third.” Its presence brought ques- 
tions from fellow students. “Some- 
thing to do with English history, of 
course?” Why was he so interested 
in English royalty? He did not ex- 
plain, but as the months went by, 
and the card, grown stained and 
dusty, was replaced with another, 
slightly different. “I am third,” read 
the inscription. He met the inquiry 
in his roommate’s eyes and answered 
it. 

“Tt is my mother’s rule for living,” 
he said simply. “Christ first, my 
neighbor second, and myself third. 
That is the order of precedence in 
the daily scheme of things—as she 
came to see it at the last.”—From 
the “Forward.” 


SIN 


914. Self-Sufficiency 


An architect complains that many 
of his clients come and ask him to 
design a house for them, only to let 
him speedily discover that they have 
already designed it for themselves. 
What they really want is the sanc- 
tion of their own plan, and the 
satisfaction of seeing him draw on 
paper what they have fully in their 
own minds. In very much the same 
fashion we often go to the Great 
Architect with our lives. We ask 
for wisdom and guidance, like Solo- 
mon; but we have already planned 
how we will build our fortunes and 
shape our course; and it is not his 
way we are seeking, but his approval 
of ours. 


915. Tenacious Self 


Perhaps the most ferocious animal 
in creation is the “hamster rat.” 
When it takes a grip, rather than 
yield it will allow itself to be beaten 
in pieces with a stick. If it seizes 
a man’s hand, it must be killed be- 
fore it will quit its hold. How like 
this “hamster rat” is our own proud, 
unyielding sinful self. That selfish 
spirit, that would cling to and suck 
the life out of the new heaven- 
born nature, will not quit its hold 
until it has been put to death— 
James Smith. 


SIN 

916. Choke-Damp 
Carbonic acid gas, commonly 
known as choke-damp, is usually 


found in pits or the bottom of old 
wells. It is so called because it has 
often suffocated those who came 
into contact with it. In the pit of 
iniquity and in the old wells of 
worldliness this soul-choking damp 
still abounds. If you wish your 
spiritual life choked just go down 
into the darkness of prayerlessness, 
into the empty well of the world’s 
pleasures. There is always as much 





SIN 


poisonous gas there as will take 
your heavenly breath away.—James 
Smith. 


917. Difficulties a Blessing 


One man, a golf enthusiast, was 
telling another man how hard it was, 
on a certain course, to drive the ball 
over a ditch that lay between the 
tee and the green. “Why don’t they 
fill up the ditch?” asked the second 
man. 

An old lady was watching a game 
of tennis, and saw how often the 
ball was driven against the net. 
“Why don’t they take down the 
net?” she asked. 

It is hard for many to compre- 
hend the value of obstacles, of 
hazards, of hindrances. They can- 
not understand the joys of the chase. 
They never entered into the delight 
of overcoming. 

If the time ever comes when all 
our ditches are filled, all our nets 
taken down, life will be too tame 
to live. Let us praise God daily for 
the hurdles in the way, face them 
cheerily, and over them with a 
shout !—Aesop Jones. 


918. Evil—Overcoming 


John Kant, a professor, was an 
old man when he found an oppor- 
tunity to revisit his native country of 
Silesia. It was a dangerous journey, 
and a great undertaking for one of 
his years. 

His way lay through the gloomy 
forests of Poland. One evening, 
while seeking a place in which to 
spend the night, he was suddenly 
surrounded by armed men, some on 
horseback, and some on foot. Knives 
and swords glittered in the moon- 
light, and the old man knew that he 
was at the mercy of a band of 
robbers. 

“Have you given wus all?” de- 
manded the robber chief. “ATI,” re- 
plied the old man; and, with this 
assurance, he was allowed to go 
away. 


305 


Glad to escape with his life, he 
hurried onward, but, when well out 
of sight of the robbers, his hand 
touched something hard in the hem 
of his robe. His heart gave a throb 
of joy. This hard substance was 
his gold, sewn into the lining of his 
dress for safety. In his fear and 
confusion he had forgotten it. 

Now, he would not be obliged to 
beg his way. Was it a providence? 

Comfort and safety were for- 
gotten as the old man hurried back. 
Trembling with excitement and fear, 
he found himself again in the midst 
of the robber band. 

“T have told you what was not 
true,” he said meekly. “Pardon me— 
it was unintentional. I was too 
terrified to think.” 

To the old man’s astonishment, 
nobody offered to take his gold. 
Presently one man went and brought 
him back his purse, another restored 
the book of prayer, while still an- 
other led his horse towards him, and 
helped him to mount. They then 
unitedly entreated his blessing, and 
watched him slowly ride away. It 
was the triumph of good over evil. 


919. Falsehood—Fatal 


Dr. John Todd, the eminent writer, 
never could forget how when his 
old father was very sick and sent 
him away for medicine, he, a little 
lad, had been unwilling to go, and 
made up a lie that “the druggist had 
not got any such medicine.” Johnny 
started in great distress the second 
time for the medicine, but it was 
too late. The father on his return 
was almost gone. He could only 
say to the weeping boy, “Love me 
and always speak the truth, for the 
eye of God is always upon you. 
Now kiss me once more, and fare- 
well.”’—Cuyler. 


920. First Wrong Deed 

“Dear me,” said little Janet, “I 
buttoned just one button wrong, and 
now that makes all the rest go 


306 


wrong,” and she tugged and fretted 
as if the button was at fault for her 
trouble. 

“Patience, patience, my dear,” said 
mamma, coming to the rescue. “The 
next time look out for the first 
wrong button, then you will keep all 
the rest right.” “And,” added mamma, 
“Fook out for the first wrong deed 
of any kind; another and another is 
sure to follow.” 

Janet thought for a moment, then 
she remembered how one day, not 
long ago, she struck Baby Alice. 
That was the first wrong deed. 
Then she denied having done it. 
That was another. Then she was 
unhappy and cross all day because 
she had told a lie. What a long 
list of buttons fastened wrong just 
because one was wrong. 


, 


g21. Indirect Guilt 


Wickedness which a man can 
prevent, and which he does not pre- 
vent, inculpates him. Men are re- 
sponsible for the mischief which 
they could hinder. If you put the 
torch to your neighbor’s house, you 
are guilty in one way; but if another 
puts the torch to that house, and 
you go by, and see the flames, and 
say, “It is not my business; I did 
not kindle that fire, and besides, he 
is an enemy of mine,” you are as 
culpable as if you had set fire to 
the house yourself.—H. W. Beecher. 


922. Insidious Sins 


Men do well to watch and fight 
against obvious and sounding sins. 
They are numerous. They exist on 
every hand. They are dangerous. 
They are armed and are desperate. 
They swarm the ways of life. Not 
one vice, not one crime, not one 
temptation, not one sin of which the 
Word of God warns us, is to be 
lightly esteemed. They are to be 
watched, and in armor, too; we are 
to be proof against them. 

But these are not our only dangers. 
Tens of thousands of men perish, 


SIN 


not by the lion-like stroke of tempta- 
tion, but by the insidious bite of the 
hidden serpent; not with a roar and 
strength, but with subtle poison. 
More men are moth-eaten than lion- 
eaten in this life; and it behooves 
us in time to give heed to these 
dangers of invisible and insidious 
enemies.—H. W. Beecher. 


923. Light—Hiding the 

David Rittenhouse, of Pennsyl- 
vania, the great astronomer, was skil- 
ful in measuring the size of the 
planets and determining the position 
of the stars. But he found that, 
such was the distance of those orbs, 
a silk thread stretched across the 
glass of his telescope would entirely 
cover a star; and, moreover, that a 
silk fibre, however small, placed 
upon the same glass, would not only 
cover the star, but would conceal so 
much of the heavens that the star, 
if a small one and near the pole, 
would remain obscured behind that 
silk fibre several seconds. Thus a 
silk fibre appeared to be larger in 
diameter than a star. There are 
times when a very small self- 
gratification, a very little love of 
pleasure, a very small thread, may 
hide the light. The little boy who 
held the sixpence near his eye said, 
“OQ mother, it is bigger than the 
room!” and when he drew it still 
nearer he exclaimed, “O mother, it 
is bigger than all out doors!” And 
in just that way the worldling hides 
God, and Christ, and judgment, and 
eternity from view, behind some 
paltry pleasure, some trifling joy, or 
some small possession which shall 
perish with the using, and pass away 
with all earth’s lusts and glory, in 
the approaching day of God Al- 
mighty—H. L. Hastings. 


924. Resist Beginnings 

When you stand and look at the 
sweeping flames of a prairie on an 
autumnal day, stretching leagues 
away or at night, throwing a lurid 


rn 


SO —-—— 








SIN 307 


light into the broad heaven above, 
you do not suppose that those vast 
flames were put there. The negligent 
hunter, after his evening meal, sat 
smoking his pipe; he knocked a 
spark out of it, and it kindled, and 
grew, and he watched it, thinking that 
he might at any moment subdue it 
by the stroke of his boot; but it 
escaped him and ran, and spread here 
and there and everywhere, and 
swung on, and the wind caught it 
and nourished it, and it laughed and 
roared and crackled as it sped along, 
growing wider and more fierce, con- 
suming harvest, fence, hut, and 
hovel. It took care of itself after it 
was once kindled. It had in itself 
multiplying power. Evil always has: 
put it out early!—H. W. Beecher. 


925. Secret Sins 

There is an insect that has a very 
close resemblance to the “bumble 
bee,” but which is a terrible enemy 
to it. Because of its likeness, it 
sometimes finds its way in a fraud- 
ulent manner into the bees’ nest, and 
there deposits eggs. But when these 
eggs are hatched the larvae devour 
the larvae of the bees. It comes in 
as a friend and helper, but turns out 
to be a devouring enemy. Such is 
that secret sin harbored in the 
heart. It eats away the vitals of the 
spiritual life, and effectually de- 
stroys the power of growth and use- 
fulness. It is all the more danger- 
ous when it comes in the form of 
a friend and helper in the work.— 
James Smith. 


926. Self-Righteousness Fatal 


Some harbors have bars of sand 
which lie across the entrance, and 
prohibit the entrance of ships at low 
water. There is a bar, not of sand, 
but of adamantine rock, the bar of 
divine justice, which lies between 
a sinner and heaven. Christ’s 
righteousness is the high water that 
carries a believing sinner over this 
bar, and transmits him safe to the 


land of eternal rest. Our own 
righteousness is the low water, 
which will fail us in our greatest 
need, and will ever leave us short 
of the heavenly Canaan.—Salter. 


927. Silence—Golden 


Once a woman came to Saint 

hilip Neri and confessed that she 
had said unkind and untrue things 
about her neighbors. Saint Philip 
told her to go to the market and 
buy a chicken that had been newly 
killed, and then to walk along the 
road plucking the feathers as she 
went. When she had done this, he 
told her to go back and pick them 
all up again. Of course she said 
that was impossible, and Saint 
Philip answered, “Ah then! re- 
member that just so is it with your 
words. After you have once spoken 
them they are scattered hither and 
thither, and you can never get them 
back again.”—James Hastings. 


928. Sin a Disease 


Some malady which you do not 
understand troubles and alarms 
you. The physician is called. 
Thinking that the illness proceeds 
from a certain inflammatory process 
on a portion of your skin, you 
anxiously direct his attention to the 
spot. Silently but sympathisingly he 
looks at the place you have bidden 
him look, and because you have 
bidden him look there, but soon he 
turns away. He is busy with an 
instrument on another part of your 
body. He presses his trumpet-tube 
gently to your breast, and listens 
for the pulsations which faintly but 
distinctly pass through. He looks 
and listens there, and saddens as 
he looks. You again direct his at- 
tention to the cutaneous eruption 
which annoys you. He sighs and 
sits silent. When you reiterate your 
request that something should be 
done for the external eruption, he 
gently shakes his head, and answers 
not a word. From this silence you 


308 


would learn the truth at last; you 
would not miss its meaning long. 
Oh, miss not the meaning of the 
Lord when He points to the seat 
of the soul’s disease: “Ye will not 
come.” These, His enemies, dwell 
in your heart.—Arnot. 


929. Sin and Forgiveness 

Mr. French quoted a saying of 
old Fuller’s—“He that falls into sin 
is a man; he that grieves at sin is 
a saint; he that boasts of sin is a 


devil.” My father (Rev. W. Marsh, 
D. D.) replied, “Only one thing 
more: He that forgives it is God.” 


—Miss Marsh. 


930. Sin Degrades 


A learned professor was asked to 
determine scientifically whether or 
not alcohol was injurious to the 
system. He tried it on a kitten. The 
instinct of the animal rebelled 
against the experiment. The pro- 
fessor poured a little of the liquor 
mixed with milk down the kitten’s 
throat each day. After ten days the 
kitten stopped playing, it stopped 
growing, it took no interest in keep- 
ing its fur clean like the other kit- 
tens, it lost all energy in getting 
after mice, it showed no dislike for 
dogs. It would neither work nor 
play, all energy and enterprise were 
lost. It was just a. little: dirty, 
drunken animal. I wonder why the 
professor made the experiment; he 
could have seen the same thing 
hanging around any saloon. Why 
degrade a perfectly good kitten? 


931. Sin Found Out 


When news first came of the de- 
struction of the massive stone build- 
ings at Stanford University, ex- 
perts declared they could not under- 
stand the failure of the building to 
withstand the shocks. Now it ap- 
pears that “Jerry” building was re- 
sponsible, and that huge graft had 
been worked by the contractors. In- 
stead of massive stone walls there 


SIN 


was only a veneer of stone, and the 
interior was filled with chipped stone 
and poor cement. The memorial 
arch, which was praised as one of 
the finest bits of mural work in the 
country, is a complete ruin, and re- 
mains to show glaring incidents of 
rotten masonry that no inspector 
should have passed. It is because 
men in business do not realize the 
fact that God takes note of the most 
minute transactions and that he will 
require an account for the work of 
the hands as well as of the heart. 
In our Christian day men need to 
work as did the heathen sculptor 
who was carving a statue that was 
to stand in a niche in a temple. 
Many of his friends were surprised 
to see that he took as much pains 
with the back part of the statue as 
with the front. They said to him, 
“Why are you so careful about that 
part? It has to stand in the niche, 
it will not be seen.” “Because, the 
gods will see it,’ said he—Selected. 


932. Sin Ignores Fences 


A man was once walking with a 
farmer through a beautiful field, 
when he happened to see a tall thistle 
on the other side of the fence. In 
a second over the fence he jumped, 
and cut it off close to the ground. 
“Ts that your field?” asked his com- 
panion. “Oh, no!” said the farmer, 
“bad weeds do not care much for 
fences, and if I should leave that 
thistle to blossom in my neighbor’s 
field, I should soon have plenty in 
my own.” In some of our western 
states the law requires the farmers 
and roadmasters to destroy all weeds 
on their farms and in the highways. 

Bad men are like thistles. They 
pay no regard to fences. They are 
a menace to the peace and prosperity 
of all classes. And the only way 
for the good and virtuous in a com- 
munity to secure their own peace 
and happiness is to convert the sin- 
ners or to shut them up in peni- 
tentiaries—Herald and Presbyter. 


pe 


SIN 


933. Sin in Control 


“Out in California where they 
drive the stages down the steep 
mountain sides, it is necessary to 
put the brake on hard lest the coach 
plunge down upon the haunches of 
the horses. There was some time 
ago a very godless driver who had 
been for forty years on a certain 
route. He was a vile, profane man, 
who often boasted that he feared 
neither God, man nor the devil. At 
last he was on his death-bed, and 
as he lay there his friends noticed 
him kicking out with his right foot 
as if he were reaching for some- 
thing. They thought it too warm 
and took off most of the covers, but 
still he continued to reach out his 
right foot. They spoke to him but 
received no response. At last his 
old chum, Joe, came and said, ‘Bill, 
what’s the matter? Isn’t there 
something I can do for you?’ And 
looking up into Joe’s face with a 
look that Joe said he never could 
forget, Bill said, ‘My God, I’m 
speeding down the hill and I can’t 
find the brake.’ Young man put on 
the brake at the top of the hill and 
stand in the strength of God.” 


934. Sin Not Forsaken 


An TIrishman confessed to his 
priest that he had been stealing hay. 
The “father” asked him how much 
he had stolen. He answered, “Your 
riverence, I might as well confess 
to the whole stack, as I’m going 
back after the other half to-night.” 


935. Sin of Covetousness 


Saint Francis Xavier, the noble 
Jesuit missionary, said in the con- 
fessional men had confessed to him 
all sins he knew and some he had 
never imagined, but none had ever 
voluntarily confessed that* was 
covetous. 7 

It was because of covetousness 
that the Jews crucified their Messiah, 
and were it not for that sin today 


309 


the earth would know Jesus Christ 
as Saviour and Lord ere a year had 
rolled around. 


936. Sin Revealed 


One day, upon returning to my 
room, after a brief absence, a 
curious state of things was to be 
seen. 

Cards and papers were tossed 
about. Papers, writing desk, and 
tablecloth were sprinkled with ink. 

The nearby window shades and 
white curtains were bespattered with 
ink. It was clear that some one had 
improved the opportunity to have 
some fun, which did not seem to me 
to be funny at all. 

Of course I thought of the chil- 
dren in the household. But it did 
not seem to be like them. They had 
not been brought up in that sort of 
way. And it was not their habit to 
come to my room alone. 

Just as I gave it up a white paper 
was seen on the other side of my 
desk and on it some telltale marks. 
I understood. The mystery was 
solved. Two distinct footprints left 
upon the paper let the secret out. 

The pet cat which had the run of 
the house, and whose bump of 
curiosity was overdeveloped, had 
climbed upon my table, and being 
anxious to find out the contents of 
my ink bottle, had put its foot into 
it—in more senses than one. To get 
rid of the ink, in shaking its feet 
it spattered things far and near, 
stepping twice on a sheet of paper 
before leaving the table. Of course 
it could not take all the ink with it. 

It was just a little sermon on the 
text of Moses, when he talked to 
the people of Reuben and Gad. Can 
you find the text in the book of 
Numbers? Look for the text of the 
cat’s sermon.—S. S. Advocate. 


937. Sin—Age No Cure for 


According to Aesop, an old 
woman found an empty jar which 


310 


had lately been full of prime old 
wine, and which still retained the 
fragrant smell of its former con- 
tents. She greedily placed it several 


times to her nose, and drawing it 


backwards and forwards said, “Oh, 
most delicious! How nice must the 
wine itself have been when it leaves 
behind, in the very vessel which con- 
tained it, so sweet a perfume!” 

Men often hug their vices when 
their power to enjoy them is gone. 
—Spurgeon. 


938. Sin—Banishing 

Suppose you were in a dark room 
in the morning, the shutters closed 
and fastened, and only as much 
light coming through the chinks as 
made you aware it was day out- 
side. And suppose you should say 
to a companion with you, “Let us 
open the windows and let in the 
light.” What would you think if he 
replied, “No, no; you must first put 
the darkness out, or the light will 
not enter?” You would laugh at 
his absurdity. Just so we cannot 
put sin out of our hearts to prepare 
for Christ entering: we must open, 
and take Him in, and sin will flee. 
Fling the window open at once, and 
let Christ shine in—Edmond. 


939. Sin-——Bonds of 


In a recent railroad accident in 
Colorado a_ sheriff, who had a 
prisoner chained to him was killed. 
The prisoner was unharmed and 
could have escaped had it not been 
for the dead body of the sheriff that 
held him fast. “O wretched man 
that I am! who shall deliver me 
from the body of this death?” 

Let us praise God that His Son 
Jesus can strike off the manacles of 
the body of sin with which we are 
held fast. 


940. Sin—Breaking With 


“Human wisdom says, ‘Disengage 
yourself by degrees from the bonds 


SIN 


of sin; learn gradually to love God 
and live for Him.’ But in this way 
we never break radically with sin, 
and give ourselves wholly to God. 
We remain in the dull, troubled at- 
mosphere of our own nature, and 
never attain to the contemplation 
of the full light of the Divine holi- 
ness. Faith, on the contrary, raises 
us, as it were at a bound, into the 
regal position which Jesus Christ 
now holds, and which in him is 
really ours. From thence we behold 
sin cast under our feet; we taste the 
life of God as our true essential be- 
ing in Jesus Christ. Reason says, 
‘Become holy in order to be holy.’ 
Faith says ‘You are holy: therefore 
become so. You are holy in Christ; 
become so in your own person.’ This 
is perhaps the most paradoxical fea- 
ture of pure evangelical doctrine. 
He who disowns it, or puts it from 
him will never cross the threshold 
of Christian sanctification. We do 
not get rid of sin by little and little, 
we break with it with that total 
breaking which was consummated by 
Christ upon the cross. We do not 
ascend one by one the steps of the 
throne: we spring upon it and seat 
ourselves there with Christ, by the 
act of faith which incorporates us 
in Him. Then from the height of 
that position, holy in its essential 
nature, we reign victoriously over 
self, the world, Satan and all the 
powers of evil.”—Godet. 


941. Sin—Burden of 


Dr. W. R. Dobyns relates an in- 
cident that gives us some idea of the 
burden of sin that broke the heart 
of the Son of God! 

“Some time ago I noticed a 
stranger in my congregation who 
seemed to be oppressed by some 
great sorrow. In conversation with 
him he weepingly told me that his 
son had been guilty of a great crime 
and that he was on his way to see 
President Roosevelt and obtain, if 
possible, a pardon for his boy. 


SIN 


There was a man who was crushed 
under the sin of just one soul. How 
infinitely more mighty and heavy 
was the load of sin laid upon the 
spotless soul of the Lamb of God.” 


942. Sin—Call of 


Men are not lost because of the 
outside evils, only. There is some- 
thing inside that responds to the 
lower calls. 

In London’s “Cal! of the Wild,” he 
tells of the magnificent St. Bernard, 
the docile pet of a wealthy family 
in California, that was stolen and 
sold to the Klondike freighter. In 
this new life the dog became a 
veritable monster. He was beaten 
into submission to the owner; but he 
bowed only to the law of “club and 
fang.” The old wolf instincts that 
long had lain dormant were aroused 
by the conditions. He fought and 
survived as wolves fight, and life is 
“to the strongest.” He learned to 
cut the bull moose from the herd 
and bring him down. When his 
owner died he went out to the woif 
pack and fought his way to mastery. 
From that time he became the most 
dire foe of Indians and game alike. 
The splendid St. Bernard had gone 
back and became the beast of prey. 
This was possible because there was 
something in the dog that responded 
to the howl of the wolf. The old 
nature was simply veneered over and 
under certain conditions the veneer 
was scraped off. 

There is something in every man 
that responds to the evil we meet. 
And this is the thing that we have 
most reason to fear. It is the in- 
ward response that gives force to 
temptation. 


943. Sin—Classifying 

A negro well known to the judge 
was in court on a charge of having 
struck a relative with a brick. After 
the usual preliminaries the court in- 
quired: 

“Why did you hit this man?” 


311 


“Judge, 
rascal.” 

“Well, you are one, aren’t you?” 

“Yessah, maybe I is one. But, 
Judge, s’pose some one should call 
you a black rascal, wouldn’t you hit 
7em Dre 

“But I am not one, am I?” 

“Naw, sah, naw, sah, you ain’t 
one; but s’pose some one’d call you 
4a bak of rascal you is, what’d you 

Oe” 


he called me a _ black 


944. Sins—Confessing Others’ 


A priest relates an interesting 
story. Bridget only came to con- 
fession occasionally, and when she 
did come she found it extremely 
difficult to remember any wrong do-- 
ing on her own part. She had an 
excellent memory for her husband’s 
sins: “It is Moike, me husband, 
that’s the bad one, father. It’s three 
weeks that Moike niver confesses, 
and Hiven knows his sins is scarlet. 
He dhrinks like a baste an’ shmokes 
like a flue. He swears that bhad 
Saint Patrick would trimble; an’ 
sure ye shud see Moike smash the 
dishes and break the furniture, an’ 
fling the stove lids.” “Six Hail 
Marys every day for a week and 
three fast days, Bridget,” said the 
father. “Och, fwat do you mane, 
father? Sure, Oi niver confessed a 
sin!” “But ye confessed Moike’s, 
and as long as you make his con- 
fession for him, I think you had 
better do his penance, too.” “And 
so I charge you by the thorny crown, 
and by the cross on which the 
Saviour bled, and by your own soul’s 
hope of fair renown.” 


945. Sin—Confession of 


One answered on the day when 
Christ went by, 

“Lord, I am rich; pause not for 
such as J; 

My work, my home, my strength, 
my frugal store, 

The sun and rain—what need have 
I of more? 


312 


Go to the sinful, who have need 
of Thee, 
Go to the poor, but tarry not for 
me. 
What is there Thou shouldst do for 
SIichas nlc 
And he went by. 


Long years thereafter, by a palace 
door, 
The footsteps of the Master paused 
once more 
From whence the old 
answered piteously 
“Lord, I am poor, my house unfit 
for Thee; 
Nor peace nor pleasure bless my 
princely board, 
Nor love nor health; what could I 
give Thee, Lord? 
Lord, I am poor, unworthy, stained 
with sin!” 
Yet He went in. 
—Mabel Earle. 


voice 


946. Sin—Covered 


In the time of the great Napoleon, 
in one of the conscriptions during 
one of his many wars, a man was 
balloted as a conscript who did not 
want to go; but he had a friend 
who wanted to go in his name, and 
this friend was sent off to the war 
in his stead. By and by a battle 
came in which he was killed, and 
they buried him on the battlefield. 
Some time after the Emperor 
wanted more men, and by some mis- 
take the first man was balloted the 
second time. They want to take 
him, but he remonstrated. 

“You cannot take me,” he said. 

“Why not?” they asked. 

“I am dead,” was his reply. 

“You are not dead; you are alive 
and well.” 

“But I am dead,” he insisted. 

“Why, man, you are mad! This 
is peculiar; where did you die?” 

“At the battle of ——, and you 
left me buried on the field.” 

“You talk like a madman!” they 
cried; but the man stuck to his point 


SIN 


that he had been dead and buried 
several months. 

“You look up your record,” he 
said, ‘and see if it is not so.” 

They looked and found that he 
was right. They found the man’s 
name entered as drafted, sent to 
war, and marked off as killed. 

“Look here,” they said, “you didn’t 
die; you must have got some one to 
go for you; it must have been your 
substitute.” 

“T know that,” he said; “he died 
in my stead. You cannot touch me. 
I go free. The law has no claim 
against me.” 

The authorities would not rec- 
ognize this doctrine of substitution, 
and the case was carried to the 
Emperor. But he said that the man 
was right; that he was dead and 
buried in the eyes of the law; and 
that France had no claim against 
him. But in order to get that free- 
dom this man had to accept his 
friend’s substitution, and that is just 
what you must do. Christ came and 
died in your stead. The apostle 
says that “He is the propitiation for 
our sins: and not for ours only, 
but also for the sins of the whole 
world.” And again it is declared 
that “He tasted death for every 
man.” But we must accept him, 
and until we do accept his mediation 
in our behalf, we make his death 
and sufferings of no effect for us.— 
Louis Albert Banks. 


947. Sin-—Covered 


Certain great iron-castings have 
been ordered for a railway bridge. 
The thickness has been calculated ac- 
cording to the extent of the span 
and the weight of the load. The 
contractor constructs his moulds ac- 
cording to the specification, and 
when all is ready pours in the molten 
metal. In the process of casting, 
through some defect in the mould, 
portions of air lurk in the heart of 
the iron, and cavities, like those of 
a honey-comb, are formed in the 


SIN 


interior of the beam; but all defects 
are hid, and the flaws are effectually 
concealed. The artisan has covered 
his fault, but he will not prosper. 
As soon as it is subjected to a strain 
the beam gives way. Sin covered 
becomes a rotten hollow in a human 
soul, and when the strain comes the 
false gives way.—W. Arnot. 


948. Sin—Deflement of 


The fur of the ermine is of per- 
fect whiteness. The dainty little 
creature appears to make it the busi- 
ness of its life to keep clean. It has 
as utter a horror of filth as a sow 
has a love for it. So strong is this 
instinct that the ermine will suffer 
capture rather than defilement. 
Trappers know this fact and use 
it to the destruction of the little 
creature. They will smear filth over 
the paths that the ermine would 
naturally choose to escape, and it 
falls into the trap because it keeps 
itself unspotted. So should we have 
a horror of the defilement of sin; 
so should we love purity that we 
try to keep our thoughts pure and 
sweet and clean at all costs.—Rev. R. 
P. Anderson. 


949. Sin—Defnition of 


A sentence taken from oneof Mrs. 
Wesley’s letters to John Wesley, 
when he was in college: “Would you 
judge of the lawfulness or the un- 
lawfulness of a pleasure, take this 
rule: Whatever weakens your 
reason, impairs in tenderness of 
your conscience, obscures your sense 
of God, or takes off the relish of 
spiritual things; whatever increases 
the authority of your body over 
your mind—that thing, to you, is 
sin.” 


950. Sin—Delusions of 


When Napoleon Bonaparte was 
making his expedition across Egypt 
in command of the French army, 
they found themselves one morning 
traversing boundless plains of sand 


313 


without water or shade, and with a 
burning sun over their heads. All 
the wells on the road were either 
filled up or exhausted. Hardly a 
few drops of muddy or brackish 
water were to be found to quench 
their thirst. In the midst of the 
general depression and hopelessness 
of the situation, a sudden gleam of 
hope illuminated the countenances 
of the soldiers. In the distance they 
beheld a lake, with villages and 
palm trees clearly reflected in its 
glassy surface. Instantly the weary 
troops burst into shouts of gladness, 
and though their lips were parched 
with thirst, they hastened forwarded 
to the enchanted spot. But it receded 
from their steps. Again they pressed 
on with burning impatience, but it 
forever fled from their approach; 
and they had at length the mortifica- 
tion and sorrow of discovering that 
they had been deceived by the mirage 
of the desert. 

The delusions which come to men 
and women who are deceived into 
giving themselves over to worldly 
and sinful lives are very much like 
that—Louis Albert Banks. 


951. Sin—Depth of 


There is no truer sentence in all 
the Bible than that “The wages of 
sin is death.” It is death to purity, 
death to peace, death to power, death 
to satisfaction, death to a strong 
character, death here and worse than 
death hereafter. In that remarkable 
book of Oscar Wilde’s entitled, “De 
Profundis,” I read the following: 

“The gods had given me almost 
everything. But I let myself be 
lured into long spells of senseless 
and sensual ease. I amused myself 
with being a dandy, a man of 
fashion. I surrounded myself with 
the smaller natures and the meaner 
minds. I became the spendthrift of 
my own genius, and to waste an 
eternal youth give me curious joy. 
Tired of being on the heights I 
deliberately went to the depths in 


314 


the search of new sensations. What 
the paradox was to me in the sphere 
of thought, perversity became to me 
in the sphere of passion. Desire at 
the end, was a malady or madness, 
or both. I grew careless of the lives 
of others. I took pleasure when it 
pleased me and passed on. I forgot 
that every little action of the day 
makes or unmakes character, and 
that therefore what was done in 
the secret chamber one has some 
day to cry aloud on the house-top. 
I ceased to be lord over myself. I 
was no longer the captain of my 
soul and did not know it. I allowed 
pleasure to dominate me and I 
ended in horrible disgrace.” 


952. Sin—Destruction of 


The use of the terrible new 
weapon of warfare, poisonous gas, 
is subject to many uncertainties, and 
is even more treacherous than aero- 
planes. In the fighting on the 
Western Front in the Great War a 
gas cloud was liberated by the 
Germans against their foes. It 
spread out over the fields its horrible 
green death, and reached the 
enemies’ trenches; but just then the 
wind changed and the gas was 
driven back over the Germans them- 
selves. 

This happens always when men 
send forth against each other the 
poisonous clouds of passion, of sus- 
picion, of slander, of ridicule and 
sarcasm and contempt. The wind of 
the Spirit turns the deadly gas back 
upon those that used it. Their 
spiritual life is destroyed by the very 
act which they hoped would ruin 
others. “Curses, like chickens, re- 
turn home to roost,” and every im- 
pulse of hate turns against the hater. 
“Evil to him who evil thinks.” 


953. Sin—Destructive 

A famous Scottish preacher was 
taking a holiday in the Isle of Skye 
in the Western Hebrides. He was 
having a great time, and thought 


SIN 


how lovely it all was to be so far 
away from the noise and sin of a 


great city. 


But he was soon to see even 


among such peaceful and beautiful — 


country surroundings that strange 
and evil things happen. 

One morning he was out amid the 
hills enjoying the exquisite scenery, 
when near him there arose a great 
eagle on its shining wings. He 
watched it fly away up towards the 
sky until it became a speck. Taking 
out his field glasses he watched the 
eagle fly beyond where the naked 
eye could see it. 

“Wonderful,” he thought, “power- 
ful, majestic bird.” 

But what was that, that was hap- 
pening now? The great bird is fall- 
ing! Beak over tail it descends. 
Ah, it has righted itself again and 
is flying upward. Dear me, again 
it is coming down. Yet again it 
tried to right itself. This happened 
two or three times, and the last time 
it seemed to be successful in its up- 
ward course. But lo! look at it 
now! It is coming down. Will it 
not find its wings again? Down, 
down, down, it continued to come, 
and at length crashed upon a huge 
rock just near the place from which 
it had risen. 

What possibly could be the cause 
of its downfall? 

From underneath the battered body 
of the eagle there scurried a weasel, 
—a small animal noted for its blood- 
thirstiness. 

The eagle had started out on its 
flight with the weasel clutched tight 
in its talons, for eagles are 
carnivorous birds. No doubt the 
eagle’s intention was to drink the 
weasel’s blood when it was away up 
above the clouds. So the eagle had 
carefully lain in wait for the weasel 
to come from among the rocks, and 
when it did, the eagle’s talons closed 
around it and carried it off. 

It was a great mistake for the 
eagle to start off with the sinuous 


SIN 


‘creature in its keeping. When it 
least thought of its danger the eagle 
was taken by surprise. The captured 
weasel gave a sudden squirm and 
worked itself free from the clutches 
of the eagle. Fighting in mid-air 
the animal was able to bite his 
captor’s throat and drink his blood. 
This so weakened the great bird that 
in spite of the many attempts it 
made to free itself, it was overcome 
and dropped to its doom. 

Many young men and maidens 
whose lives looked promising of suc- 
cess, and as fair as the upward flight 
of that eagle at the Isle of Skye, 
have. been brought to nothing but 
destruction. Why, you ask? Be- 
cause they started out with some- 
thing akin to a weasel in their keep- 
ing. Some bad habit, some selfish 
thought, some purely greedy am- 
bition. All the strength that would 
have carried them up above the 
clouds and dangers, was drawn 
away by this evil thing in their grip. 
St. Paul understood this fact, with 
all its dangers and illusions, when 
he said: “Let us lay aside every 
weight, and the sin which doth so 
easily beset us.’—Adam Doran. 


954. Sin—Entanglements of 


The stags in the Greek epigram, 
whose knees were clogged with 
frozen snow upon the mountains, 
came down to the brooks of the val- 
leys, hoping to thaw their joints 
with the waters of the stream; but 
there the frost overtook them and 
bound them fast in ice, till the 
young herdsman took them in their 
strange snare.—Jeremy Taylor. 


955. Sin—Freedom From 


Just before Christmas a pathetic 
letter was handed to one of the 
judges in a New York court. It 
came from one of the prisoners 
who was then in the dock waiting 
for sentence. The writer said that 
he had not had a free Christmas 
for twenty-two years, and he longed 


315 


beyond the power of words to ex- 
press to spend the day this year 
outside the walls of a prison. It ap- 
peared from his record that he had 
been arrested in 1877 and tried for 
grand larceny. He had been con- 
victed and sentenced. There had 
been several charges against him, 
and when he had served his term 
for one offense he was re-arrested as 
he left the penitentiary and tried 
for another. In November last he 
was once more a free man, but there 
was one more charge pending, and 
he was arrested as his discharge 
papers were handed to him. He 
was the more disappointed because 
he had learned in the prison a trade 
by which he could support himself 
honestly, and was hoping to lead a 
right life. All this he explained in 
his letter to the judge, and begged 
him when he should be brought up 
for sentence to give him a chance. 
An officer corroborated his story of 
good behavior in prison and _ his 
learning a trade. The judge, having 
read the letter in open court, gave 
the prisoner some good advice, and 
suspended sentence. The man was 
so overcome with joy that he was 
unable to walk, and an officer had to 
lead him out of court. We can un- 
derstand why a man should be over- 
whelmed with rejoicing at his sense 
of freedom at last from the prison 
guard dogging at his footsteps and 
the key turned in the lock of his 
cell door; but how much more 
perfect and p’orious is that freedom 
which comes to the man or the 
woman who is freed from sin by the 
Son of God!—Louis Albert Banks. 


956. Sin—Grip of 

I knew of one who, while wander-~ 
ing along a lonely and rocky shore 
at the ebb of tide. slipped his foot 
into a narrow crevice. Fancy his 
horror at finding he could not with- 
draw the imprisoned limb! Dread- 
ful predicament! There he sat, with 
his back to the shore and his face 


316 


to the sea. How he shouted 
to the distant boat! how his heart 
sank as her yards swung round and 
she went off on the other tack! how 
his cries sounded high above the 
roar of breakers! how bitterly he 
envied the white sea-mew her wing, 
as, wondering at this intruder on 
her lone domains, she sailed above 
his head, and shrieked back his 
shriek! how at length, abandoning 
all hope of help from man, he turned 
his face to heaven and cried loud 
and long to God! All that God only 
knows. But as sure as there was a 
terrific struggle, so sure, while he 
watched the waters rising inch by 
inch, these cries never ceased till the 
wave swelled up, and washing the 
dying prayer from his lips, broke 
over his head with a melancholy 
moan. There was no help for him. 
There is help for us, although fixed 
in sin as fast as that man in the 
fissured rock.—Guthrie. 


957. Sin—Killing Cause of 


I know a man who in the weekly 
prayer-meeting was always confess- 
ing the same things. His prayer 
was seldom varied. “O Lord, since 
we last gathered together, the cob- 
webs have come between us and 
Thee. Clear away the cobwebs that 
we may again see Thy face.” One 
day a brother called out, “O Lord 
God, kill the spider!” You know 
very well that you may sweep cob- 
webs away, but if you leave 
spiders in the room you will have 
cobwebs again tomorrow morning. 
The best way to get rid of the cob- 
webs is to deal with the cause, to 
kill the spider. That is exactly what 
Jesus Christ did when he died on 
the Cross. He not only dealt with 
the effect, but he dealt with the very 
cause of sinning—From Keswick 


Week. 


958. Sin—Lure of 


A Salvation Army Officer was 
soliciting a collection in the street. 


SIN 


One man was heard to say as he 
dropped in a dime, “Here’s ten cents 
for the grafters.” “You don’t believe 
there is any graft in the Salvation 
Army,” quickly rejoined the woman. 
“How do you know?” the man 
asked her. “Because you would be 
in the Army yourself if you did,” 
was the sharp reply. And the man 
had the grace, and the humor, to 
laugh.—Youth’s Companion. 


959. Sin—Playing With 

Two little Italian lads of New 
York City were returning from a 
swim. They were each about fifteen 
years old. Pietro had picked up a 
piece of copper wire and thought 
he would have a little fun with the 
third rail of the New York Central 
track along which they were walk- 
ing. He poked away around the 
wooden covering of the rail but 
nothing happened. “That’s funny,” 
he said, “I guess I didn’t touch the 
right spot.” Then he pushed the 
point of his wire down underneath 
the covering. There was a flash of 
blue flame and a shriek of pain as 
11,000 volts of electricity shot 
through the wire. In a moment and 
less his clothing was on fire and his 
hair and eyebrows were burned off. 
He tried to drop the wire as it 
hissed and sputtered at white heat 
but it wouldn’t let go. He tried to 
pull it away but it stuck to the rail 
as if it were soldered there. His 
little friend tried to pull him away 
but was hurled to the ground with 
a terrific shock. The brave little 
fellow then threw his rubber coat 
around Pietro and pulled him loose. 
Pietro started to run but fainted and 
fell. They took him to the hospital 
and the doctor said, “One chance 
in a thousand to recover.” 

The two boys said they knew 
there was something dangerous 
about that rail. They had heard 
older people say so but they didn’t 
think it would hurt any to play with 
it a little. And so sin scorches and 


SIN 


burns and kills like a live third rail, 
and people know it and yet they 
will trifle with sin. And there are 
men and women right here in this 
meeting tonight who have played 
with your passion and played with 
sin so long it looks to you as if 
your case is hopeless. 

But thanks be to God, sin never 
took any one so low that Jesus 
Christ, the God-man, couldn’t reach 
down a little lower and = snap 
the fetters and set him free. That’s 
why He was manifested—to destroy 


the works of the Devil—W. E. 
Biederwolf. 
_ 960. Sin—Poison of 


A lady caught a little creature 
which she thought was a chameleon, 
and attached it by a little chain to 
her collar, so that it could crawl 
about on her shoulder. The cha- 
meleon is a harmless little reptile, 
which changes its color from gray 
to green or red, and is considered 
very beautiful by some people. In- 
stead of a chameleon, however, this 
lady caught a poisonous kind> of 
lizard, and it bit her, causing her 
death. What a terrible mistake! 
And yet there are many who are 
taking the poison of sin into their 
lives, thinking it is a beautiful, 
pleasant thing. But some day they 
may find that they have taken some- 
thing worse than poison into their 
lives. 


961. Sin—Prize of 
The other day in New York City 


there was an auction sale, by a rail- 
road company, of a quantity of un- 
claimed chests, valises, and parcels. 
Some of these packages brought 
large prices. Many of them sold 
for a great many times their worth. 
The fiercest bidding was over a 
prosperous looking trunk. It was 
strongly made, and although not very 
heavy, the speculators who examined 
its exterior concluded that it con- 
tained articles of value. One of 


317 


them finally secured it for fifty-five 
dollars and promptly pried it open, 
when he found within it only a dis- 
jointed human skeleton which had 
probably been the property of some 
medical student. It is easy to un- 
derstand the chagrin of the purchaser 
who, instead of gold and jewels, 
found only these relics of death. 
Multitudes have experienced a sim- 
ilar disappointment, but one in- 
finitely more sorrowful, when they 
have discovered the real nature of 
the prizes which they gained by sin. 
The wise Solomon, speaking of the 
false promises which sin makes, and 
of the assurances of the wicked 
that “stolen waters are sweet,” and 
that secret sins are pleasant, declares 
of him who is deceived, “He knoweth 
not that the dead are there.” I 
know I speak to some to-night who 
have been standing in “the way of 
sinners” at a fearful cost. The 
pleasure has vanished but the skele- 
ton remains.—Louis Albert Banks. 


962. Sin—Revealed 


When news first came of the de- 
struction of the massive stone build- 
ings at Stanford university, experts 
declared they couldn’t understand the 
failure of the buildings to withstand 
the shocks. Now it appears that 
“Jerry” building was responsible, and 
that huge graft had been worked 
by the contractors. 

Instead of massive stone walls 
there was only a veneer of stone, 
and the interior was filled with 
chipped stone, and poor cement. The 
memorial arch, which was praised 
as one of the finest bits of mural 
work in the country, is a complete 
ruin, and the remains show glaring 
incidents of rotten masonry that no 
architect or inspector should have 
passed. 

It is because men in business do 
not realize the fact that God takes 
note of the most minute transactions 
and that he will require an account 
for the work of the hands as well as 


318 SIN 


of the heart, that they are thus dis- 
honest. In our Christian day men 
need to work as did the heathen 
sculptor who was carving a statue 
that was to stand in a niche in the 
temple. Many of his friends were 
surprised to see that he took as 
much pains with the back part of the 
statue as with the part of the statue 
which was to be in front. They said 
to him, “Why are you so careful 
about that part? It has to stand 
in the niche, and it will not be seen.” 
“Because the gods will see it,’ said 
he. 


9637. Sin—Revealed 


A man tried to steal copper by 
cutting down wire, but one day 
while thus engaged at the top of a 
high pole he came in touch with a 
“live” wire and was instantly killed. 
There he hung gripped by the 
mighty current with his guilty in- 
tentions revealed to God and man. 

There is a “live” wire in every 
sin and many are slain thereby, their 
guilt an awful record to take into 
the presence of their God. 


964. Sin—Revelation of 


An illustrative incident occurs to 
me. I had my picture taken with a 
group of gentlemen on a certain 
occasion, and on seeing it was par- 
ticularly impressed with its good 
appearance. Now like most public 
men in these modern days, I am 
called upon frequently for a photo- 
graph for advertising purposes, so 
that it has become necessary to have 
a supply on hand. But also like 
many of them, I dislike having a 
picture taken. Therefore on behold- 
ing this, an idea came to me. If the 
artist could cut me out from the 
group in some way, and run off a 
number of copies of myself alone, it 
would save me the inconvenience of 
sitting again for several years. 

Entering the studio and laying 
down the picture, I explained the ob- 
ject of my visit. 


“Oh,” said the lady in attendance, — 
‘if you will give us a sitting we 
will obtain a much better photograph 
of you than that.” ‘ 
MING) OL replied, “T believe it im-_ 
possible. That is the best photo-— 
graph of myself I ever saw. In 
pact, tn) added, my pride rising to 
the occasion, “my picture is the best — 
of the group. See my friend, for 
example,’—pointing to a gentleman 
in the group by my side,—“how he 
squints !” 
“Oh, but you also squint,” she — 
said. “Please look at yourself — 
through this,” handing me a small © 
magnifying-glass. dl 
4 

bl 





I looked, and happily, just then © 
another client entered the room, at- — 
tracting the lady’s attention. Where- — 
upon, improving the opportunity, and 
leaving the picture on the counter, — 
I turned my back upon it, walking — 
down the stairs as quietly as if they 
were carpeted with velvet. The 
Spirit of God taking advantage of 
the occasion also, seemed to be 
hammering into my conscience those 
solemn words of Romans 3:19: 
“Now we know that what things so- — 
ever the law saith, it saith to them — 
who are under the law: that every — 
mouth may be stopped, and all the ‘ 
world may become guilty before — 
God.” I had a revelation of sin, the — 
sin in my own heart and life, © 
brought home to me that day, such © 
as I had not for many days.—James ~ 
M. Gray. ’ 


965. Sin—Secret ‘ 
On the slope of Long’s Peak in 
Colorado lies the ruin of a forest © 
giant. The naturalist tells us that 
the tree had stood for four hundred ~ 
years; that it was a seedling when ~ 
Columbus landed on San Salvador ; 
that it had been struck by lightning 
fourteen times; that the avalanches 
and storms of four centuries had 
thundered past it. In the end, 
however, beetles killed the tree. A 
giant that age had not withered nor 


SIN 


lightnings blasted nor storms sub- 
dued fell at last before insects that 
a man could crush between his fore- 
finger and his thumb. So human 
characters collapse into futile use- 
fulness not only through “presump- 
tuous sins” but more frequently 
through “secret faults.” And no- 
where is this subtle cause of ruined 
character more obvious than in the 
destructive work of the _ small 
enemies of usefulness. 


966. Sin—Sick of 

Dr. J. R. Brown, speaking of Pro- 
fessor Henry Drummond’s evangelis- 
tic effects, says, “There was an 
ethical inexorableness that withered 
all cheap notions of salvation.” <A 
young medical student had come 
under Drummond’s spell. The stu- 
dent already had his arts degree. 
But though the great _ student- 
worker made the message so plain, 
the seeker seemed to be incapable 
of the simple faith essential to the 
walking with Christ. At last Drum- 
mond knew that there must be some- 
thing wrong in that young man’s 
life. So one night the teacher took 
the young man’s arm and walked 
with him across the park and got 
his story. He had cheated in his 
final examinations. He had fooled 
every proctor and professor in the 
examination hall. He had gotten his 
degree dishonorably. What could 
he do now? They talked till mid- 
night. Then the student agreed to 
go to the Senate the next day, tell 
what he had done, and take any con- 
sequences that might follow. Drum- 
mond went with him. His old ex- 
amination papers were brought from 
the Lumber Room, and he was asked 
to show on what parts he had 
cheated. Credits for these parts 
were immediately deducted and when 
the last dishonesty was revealed, it 
was discovered that he had just 
credits enough to warrant them in 
leaving him his degree. 

Dr. Drummond hated sin above 


319 


all things. After a meeting he was 
discovered worn and haggard and 
distressed, leaning on a mantel look- 
ing into the fire, and when asked 
what the trouble was, replied, “I 
am sick of the sins of these men. 
How can God bear it?” 


967. Sin—Slavery of 

Officials at the Davenport, Ia., 
jail were awakened by the ringing 
of the night bell and Deputy Sheriff 
William Brehmer was called upon 
to perform one of the most peculiar 
midnight jobs a court officer has 
ever had to do. 

The callers proved to be the 
marshal of Buffalo, Ia., with two 
members of an amateur theatrical 
company, one of whom had become 
hopelessly locked in the grip of a 
pair of handcuffs used in a rehearsal. 
The man had been taken to Daven- 
port police station by automobile 
and when the officers looked at the 
handcuff they found a key had been 
broken off in the lock. 

Sin is usually an attractive thing 
to play with, but sooner or later it 
makes a slave of its devotee. II- 
lustrations of this fact are given on 
a colossal scale these fast moving 
days. 


968. Sin—Sting of 

Many years ago I was told of a 
priest who was called to visit a 
dying man. He heard his confession 
and prepared him for death, but the 
dying man said to him: “The one 
thing which troubles me more now 
even than the great sins of my life, 
is a trick that I played when I was 
a boy. Not far from where I lived 
was a large common, in the middle 
of which two roads met. At these 
crossroads a rickety  sign-post 
directed the traveller to his des- 
tination. The arms of the sign- 
post were loose, and one day, for 
fun, I took them down and changed 
them, so that they pointed out the 
wrong road; and now that years 


320 


have rolled by and I am dying, it 
worries me greatly to think how 
many a poor, weary traveller across 
that common I sent on the wrong 
road.”—-A. G. Mortimer. 


969. Sin—Tomb of 

They found in Egypt, recently, the 
massive tomb of a young man who 
had been buried alive some. three 
thousand years ago. Within the dark 
chamber of death he frantically 
fought for life. There were 
evidences of a fearful struggle. The 
inner walls of that ancient tomb 
were stained with blood. The im- 
prisoned youth had battered the 
granite door of that silent dungeon 
until death came to his relief. But 
I have seen men in a deeper dun- 
geon, in a darker prison, and in a 
tighter grip than that which befell 
the prince of ancient times. The 
cruel grip of an evil habit too strong 
to be broken is worse than a living 
death—J. L. 


970. Sin—Tragedy of 

Along with much that is unsavory 
our sensational papers frequently 
print personal incidents which have 
all the moving force of the most 
powerful exhortations. One of 
these was the recent trial and sen- 
tencing of an aged bank cashier 
who had been a Congressman, col- 
lector of internal revenue, county 
treasurer, postmaster, and the holder 
of other offices of honor and public 
trust, but who had involved him- 
self criminally in the wrecking of 
a bank. His _ fellow-townsmen— 
judges, college president, attorneys, 
merchants—all testified to the high 
character he had previously main- 
tained and the universal esteem and 
affection in which he was held. The 
prisoner, the witnesses, and the court 
were bathed in tears and shaken 
with sobs, and the presiding judge 
could not control his emotion in 
giving sentence. 

And indescribably pathetic was the 


SIN 


parting of this white-haired man 
from his boys, young men who 
keenly felt the family disgrace. 
“My boys, my boys, don’t think too 
hard of your old father, but re- 
member me as in years gone by,” 
he cried in his agony. 

There is nothing that we need to 
add by way of application. The 
whole scene was infinitely sadder 
than anything that fiction or the 
drama can conjure up, and the 
lesson is writ large for all to read. 
—Western Christian Advocate. 


971. Sin—Wages of 

A great surgeon stood before his 
class to perform an_ operation. 
With strong gentle hands he did his 
part of the work well, and then 
turned to his pupils and said: 

“Two years ago a simple operation 
might have saved him. Six years 
ago a cessation of alcoholic drinks 
might have prevented the disease. 
Nature must now have her way. She 
will not consent to the repeal of her 
capital sentence.” The next day the 
patient died. 

In all of our indulgences we must 
ever remember that nature must 
have her way. Past a certain point 
we cannot control her. Many a 
soul has received its capital punish- 
ment that thought it could stop a 
bad habit when it had a mind to. 


972. Sin—Wages of 


San Domingo recently lost her 
president, whose end, like his life, 
was a violent one. 

The rise to power of the late 
President Caceres was due to a 
deed of blood; a murder, though a 
retributive one. Felling the op- 
pressions of the then President 
Heureaux, he, with other  con- 
spirators, decided on his death. 

The young men in the plot drew 
lots to see who would carry out 
the deed. To the one who drew the 
slip of paper that appointed him 
executioner Caceres said: “Give it 


SIN 


to me; you can not kill him. I shall 
do it myself.” And he did. Caceres 
met Heureaux in the village of 
Moca, where the despot had gone to 
levy more tribute. Caceres fired, 
and Heureaux, after some effort, 
- pulled his own revolver. But it was 
too late. He was able only to say 
“Assassin!” as he breathed his last, 
to which Caceres replied: “You 
“murdered my father.” 


973. Sin—Wages of 

There used to be at Paris a terrible 
little Doric building called “The 
Morgue,” to which were daily con- 
veyed the bodies of those hapless 
-self-murderers who had been found 
_the previous night in the river Seine. 
That great poet and deepest teacher 
of our age, Mr. Robert Browning, 
describes a visit which he paid to 
that house of death, of which the 
ghastly sombreness has also been 
“portrayed by a French poet. He 
whose imaginative pencil drew that 
demon figure, the wonderful repre- 
‘sentation of the cruelty and sen- 
‘suality of great cities which glares 
down, as though in triumph, from 
the corner of the summit of Notre 
Dame, was well fitted to reveal the 
‘sentiments of gloom and terror 
which hung about the Morgue, but 
he leaves its horror in all its 
‘horribleness unexplained without 
me oiean of hope. There are 
the two Paris workingmen carrying 
the naked body of the suicide, 
yi his hanging arm and stream- 
‘ing hair, met by his agony-stricken 
wife and weeping child; the dull, 
“curious crowd of squalid artisans are 
looking on indifferently, seated on a 
low wall. “There it is,” he says, “it 
is not my business to explain— 
‘make what you can of it.” There 
is the fact as seen without the light 
of religion. Not so our English 
‘poet. He tells us that he visited the 
“Morgue just before it was done 
“away with, and saw in it the corpses 
of three men who had found life 


eb eee 


321 


most intolerable the day before. 
Each lay on his copper couch; each 
coat and hat dripped by the owner’s 
bed. It seemed to the kindly poet’s 
heart as if one, a mere boy, had been 
maddened by the dreams of am- 
bition and their inevitable disappoint- 
ment; the next was a young So- 
cialist, his fist still fiercely clenched 
as though in defiance of the tyranny 
of death itself; and the third had 
plunged into gambling and drink and 
dissipation, and met with their in- 
evitable retribution. And this was 
the end of it all, of all their mortal 
lives: That copper couch, and the 
water dripping over them, and the 
eyes closed in the darkness of 
irrevocable death. And as he gazed 
at them, the first natural thought 
which passed through his mind was 
the awful certainty of the world’s 
universal experience—“the wages of 
sin is death,” that even on the 
lowest, poorest, most prosaic calcula- 
tion of mere advantage, 


“It’s wiser being good than bad, 
It’s safer being meek than fierce, 
It’s fitter being sane than mad.” 


But he does not stop at that eternal- 
ly forgotten commonplace. He re- 
fuses to give up those poor dead 
wretches, in spite of the horrible 
failure of their lives; no, he thinks, 
“Poor men God made, and all for 
this!” and with a holy confidence, 
a mercy which is surely Christ-like, 
he dares even to follow them into 
the future. He says: “I thought, and 
think, their sins atoned.” Death 
does not end all, it does not ex- 
tinguish the hope which for any 
one of us renders life tolerable to 
bear.—Archdeacon Farrar. 


974. Sinful Parents 

In the cemetery at Bad Ems, an 
erstwhile Monte Carlo, is a child’s 
grave, upon which is a cross with 
the inscription: “When my father 
and my mother forsake me, then the 
Lord will take me up.” The cir- 


322 


cumstances in connection with this 
case are as follows: A Russian and 
his wife, who had lost much money 
at Wiesbaden at gambling sat at a 
table in one of the gambling hells 
putting up one gold piece after the 
other. They had borrowed the 
money at Wiesbaden and then de- 
camped and now the police were on 
their track and in the hotel lay their 
child very ill with croup. A visitor 
approached them and _ whispered: 
“The nurse wishes me to tell you, 
your child is dying.” “I will come 
directly,” the father answered, and 
went on playing. A second waiter came 
to the mother with the same mes- 
sage. She too, was heartless enough 
to give the same answer as her hus- 
band and to stay at the gaming 
table with him. Ten minutes more, 
—the last gold piece gone, the child 
suffocated, the parents arrested. The 
nurse alone sat by the dead child, 
weeping as if her heart would break. 
A Christian gentleman, hearing the 
facts as stated, ordered a casket, 
buried the child and placed the cross 
with the above inscription on the 
grave. 


975. Sinful Silence 


A young man accepted the position 
of organist in one of the principal 
churches of a Texas city. He was 
a fine musician, but, being blind, was 
unable to read in the faces of his 
audience the great pleasure his music 
was giving. 

They listened enchanted and would 
talk to each other about the beauty 
of his harmonies, the uplifting in- 
fluence of his symphonies. At first 
he played as one sure of himself. 
There was no hesitation in his 
touch. Then there pealed forth splen- 
did peans of praise and cadences 
of majestic sweetness and power. 
As he played Sabbath after Sabbath 
they noticed that the erstwhile 
triumphant strains of voluntaries 
and recessionals had given place 
to delicate, sorrowful improvisations, 


SIN 


to plaintive minor fugues. One 
morning it was announced that he 
would play no more after that sery- 
ice; that his decision was final, and 
another organist must be secured. 

After the service a lady who had 
enjoyed all his music thoroughly 
went up to him and said, very 
earnestly, “I am sorry you will not 
play for us longer. I have thought 
many times I would tell you what 
an inspiration I have _ received 
through your music. I thank you 
Ponte: 

The young man’s voice faltered 
and the tears rushed to his sightless — 
eyes as he whispered, “Oh, why 
didn’t you tell me? I, too, needed — 
comfort and inspiration.” 

This should be read to every 
Christian congregation in the land. 
How many pastors there have been 
that have suffered in silence and re- 
signed for lack of a word of ap- 
preciation and encouragement. Mem- 
bers want such words spoken to 
them and expect them from the 
pastor, but he also sometimes needs 
a word of cheer to help him on his 
Way. 


976. Sinner—Lack in 


The garden is beautifully laid out; 
the straight lines and curves are 
exact; the terraces are arranged with 
artistic taste, but no seed is sown— 
and summer says: “One thing thou 
lackest !” 

The machinery is perfect, cylinder, 
piston and valve are in excellent 
order; no flaw is in the wheels, no © 
obstruction in the flues; a finer en- 
gine never stood on the iron way; 
everything is there but steam—and 
the intending traveller says: “Qne 
thing thou lackest!” 

The watch has a golden case; the! 
dial is exquisitely traced and figured ; 
the hands are delicate and well fixed; 
everything is there but the main- 
spring, and he who inquires the 
time says: “One thing thou lackest!” 

You are a needy sinner; Christ is 


SIN 


the waiting and all-sufficient Saviour. 
“One thing thou lackest!’”’ What is 
it? Name it, if you will, faith, 
trust and obedience. Each is im- 
plied in the other. Each will bring 
you what you need and desire more 
than anything else: peace, assurance, 
life everlasting! Shall the lack of 
one thing keep you from the heri- 
tage Christ bought for you with his 
precious blood? 


977. Sinner or Saint 


Travelers in China relate that at 
the criminal courts there are two 
large books. The names of those 
who are adjudged innocent are 
written in the “Book of Life,” and 
those guilty in the “Book of Death.” 
No name can be in both books at the 
same time. Neither can your name 
be in the Lamb’s Book of Life while 
you are under condemnation, nor 
need you have fear of death and 
judgment if you are His. 


978. Sinner’s Fear 


“There is one thing,” said a pro- 
fessed infidel to one of his com- 
panions in sin, “which mars all the 
pleasures of my life.” “Ah,” replied 
his companion, “what is_ that?” 
“Why,” said he, “I am afraid the 
Bible is true. If I could certainly 
know that death is an eternal sleep, 
I should be happy; my joy would 
be complete. But here is the thorn 
that stings me; this is the sword 
that pierces my very soul. If the 
Bible is true, I am lost forever. 
Every prospect is gone and I—am— 
lost—forever.” The late Robert In- 
-gersoll was one day approached by 
several dissipated men just prior to 
his lecture, and one of them said, 
“That’s right, Colonel Ingersoll, be 
sure and get rid of hell for us; for 
if you don’t there’s an awful lot of 
us fellows who are going there.”— 
Selected. 


979. Sinners—God’s Love for 
I was told once of an old man 


3238 


in a Yorkshire village, whose son 
had been a sore grief to him. One 
day a neighbor inquired how he was 
doing. “Oh, very bad!” was the 
answer. “He has been drinking 
again, and behaving very rough.” 
“Dear, dear!” said the neighbor, “if 
he was my son I would turn him 
out.” “Yes,” returned the father, 
“and so would I if he was yours. 


But, you see, he is not yours, he’s 
mine,” 


980. Sinners—Picture of 


Three men in South Boston posed 
for a traveling photographer. They 
then refused to pay for the pictures, 
beat the itinerant artist severely, and 
tried to smash his camera. Then 
they ran away, chuckling over their 
exploit and ridiculing the plight of 
their victim. 

But the photographer had one re- 
source which the three rascals had 
quite forgotten—the undeveloped 
plate in his camera. This he de- 
veloped and turned over to the 
police. By means of the telltale bit 
of paper the three men were recog- 
nized speedily and arrested under 
a charge of assault and battery, and 
were soon secure in the grasp of 
the law. 

The incident is a fair history of 
every bad deed we do. It never 
fails to take its own picture. It 
manufactures its own condemnation. 
For witness against it the great 
Judge does not need to turn to any- 
thing outside itself. “Be sure your 
sin will find you out.” “If I say, 
surely the darkness shall cover me; 
even the night shall be light about 
me”—every sinner should know that 
psalm. It is true of the God of 
justice as well as the God of mercy. 
—S. S. Magazine. 


981. Sinners—Third Class 

One day I was to travel by train, 
says a well-known minister. I met 
a friend of mine, and told him 
where I was going. He said: “I am 


O24 


going the same way, but will you 
join me at an intermediate station?” 
I looked out for him, and as he 
came forward, I said, “What class 
are you traveling?” He held up his 
first-class ticket. ‘“Well,” I said, 
“T’ve got a third-class ticket, so if 
you are to travel with me, you must 
give up your first-class privilege.” 
He did so. I thought it gave us an 
illustration of a greater thing. Christ 
Jesus gave up his first-class privilege 
to travel on earth among third-class 
sinners. He took the lowly sinner’s 
place and abode with him. 


982. Sins—Big and Little 


You and I are apt to talk about 
“big” and “‘little’ sins. There is an 
Indian proverb which says, “There 
is no distinction between big and 
little when talking about snakes.” 
They are all alike—snakes.—A. E. 
Richardson. 


983. Sins—Forgotten 

There is a charming old Celtic 
legend which says that the Angel of 
Mercy was sent to a certain saint to 
tell him that he must start for the 
Celestial City. The saint received 
the messenger and his message with 
gladness, and at the appointed hour 
they set off together. As_ they 
passed up the shining way beyond 
the bounds of this world the saint 
was suddenly troubled with the 
thought of his sins. “Mercy,” he 
said, addressing his angelic guide, 
“where did you bury my sins?” “I 
only remember that I buried them,” 
he replied, “but I cannot tell where.” 
Then he added, “As for the Father, 
he has forgotten that you ever 
sinned.” What a wonder is divine 
forgiveness! How absolutely com- 
plete—Sunday School Chronicle. 


984. Sins—Huidden 

More than 25 years ago, Bishop 
Potter, riding in the Yosemite Val- 
ley, fell from his horse and injured 


SIN 





a foot. The foot grew better ; but 
it has troubled him some ever since, i 
Not long ago the X-rays were turned — 
upon it. It was then discovered 
that for 25 years he had been walk- 
ing on a broken foot. The light 
turned on it revealed it, after many 
years. 

What is wrong with us that we } 
cannot think nobly and live a holy | 
life? You know in your heart that 
something is wrong. O, turn on the 
light! The Holy Spirit “searcheth 
all things.” He it is who 


“con-— 
vinces the world of sin.” " 


985. Sins—Little if 
I read some time ago the ex-_ 
periences of a hunter who shot a 
tiger and thought he had killed him, 
but, on his approaching, the tiger 
sprang up and, seizing the hunter 
by the knee, crushed the bone, and 
then fell back dead. The hunter 
found himself unable to walk and 
his cries were not heard. After a 
few hours, however, he forgot the- 
tiger and even the broken bones in 
his terrific struggle with thousands — 
of little ants. They covered him and | 
every nerve seemed to be bored with 
a hot awl. But for a timely rescue, 
he had soon been killed by the ants. 
So it is in many human exal 
periences. It is not the great tiger 
of calamity and grief that kills us, 
but the little ant worries of every-— 
day life. 






iets 
- 


~~ 


oe ae 


See 


986. Sins—Little 


A relief life-boat was built at Lone | 
don many years ago. While the 
workmen were busy over it, one man 
lost his hammer. Whether he kne 
it or not, it was nailed up in the 
bottom of the boat. Perhaps if he 
found it out, he thought the only 
harm done was the loss of one ham-— 
mer. But the boat was put to 
service, and every time it rocked 
on the waves the hammer was tossed 
to and fro. Little by little it wore 


= Sms 






SIN 


itself a track, until it had worn 
through planking and keel, down 
to the very copper plating, before 
it was found out. Only that plate 
of copper kept the vessel from sink- 
ing. It seemed a very little thing in 
the start, but see what mischief it 
wrought. So it is with a little sin 
in the heart. It may break through 
all the restraints that surround us, 
and, but for God’s great mercy, 
sink our souls in endless ruin. There 
are none who do not need to offer 
up the prayer: “Cleanse Thou me 
from secret faults.’-—W. R. Clark. 


987. Sin’s Remedy 

The new deacon, Stephen of Jeru- 
salem, was a man “full of faith.” 
He believed in the Gospel enough to 
try it. 

We had a hydrophobia scare in our 
city recently. All dogs were or- 
dered muzzled for ninety days. Two 
score dogs, not muzzled, were 
destroyed by the police. That scare 
started with a mad dog coming in 
from the country and crossing the 
city. On his way through twelve 
children were bitten, some severely, 
some just scratched by his teeth. 
For years our physicians had been 
making a study of the remedy for 
this dreadful disease. But they 
never had had a chance to really try 
it. But the crisis had come. Terri- 
fied mothers brought their children 
to the offices and asked if there was 
a real remedy. Those dociors said, 
“There is, here it is. Let us inject 
it regularly and your children will 
recover.” Eleven of the twelve chil- 
dren came for the regular treatment 
and are still alive. One little Polish 
boy, having no parental control over 
him, neglected to come. Now he is 
dead. 

Those doctors had faith enough 
in the remedy to use it in the 
hour of peril. We sing a lot about 
the power of the Gospel of the 
Cross, and all around us are men 
and women who have come to their 


325 


crisis and we permit them to start 
downward without an effort on our 
part to supply the only remedy for 
sin. Do you believe in the old 
Gospel enough to apply it to a world’s 
need? Stephen did. 


988. Sins—Reserved 


Among the witnesses called in a 
trial in a Southern court was an old 
darky. 

“Do you swear that what you tell 
shall be the truth, the whole truth 
and nothing but the truth?” intoned 
the clerk. 

“Well, sah,” returned the witness, 
shifting uneasily, “dis lawyer 
gemmun kin make it a pow’ful lot 
easier on hisself an’ relieve me of a 
mighty big strain ef he'll leave out 
anything about gin an’ chickens. 
’Ceptin’ fo’ dose, Ah guess Ah kin 
stick to de truth.’—The American 
Legion Weekly. 


989. Sins—Secret 


Henry Drummond said that the 
white ants of Africa are the most 
secretive creatures in the world; even 
when they are attacking whole 
forests, they come up under cover, 
building dirt tunnels up and down 
tree trunks, to shelter them while 
they work. One may rise from 
his chair at night, or go to bed; 
get up in the morning and see it 
standing there apparently unchanged. 
But let him take his seat on it, and 
lo! he and the chair are in a heap 
on the floor. What is the matter? 
Why, the white ants have come in 
the night and eaten all the inside 
out of the wooden legs, rounds, and 
frame. Not a nick appears on the 
outside, but the chair is a mere 
shell by daylight. So it is with 
the inroads of sin upon personal and 
national life—Sunday School Times. 


990. Sins—Secret 


I was crossing a golf course one 
day, and was amazed to see one of 


326 


the greens covered with large worms. 
Some worm casts have been noticed 
on that green before, and there was 
a vague idea that a roller needed 
to be used. But now a particular 
liquid had been poured over the 
green, which compelled all the worms 
to wriggle out into the light. Then 
it was obvious to all that the green 
was swarming with them just be- 
low the surface. In our private 
prayers we allow the Divine Gar- 
dener to pour over our lives the 
liquid that discovers secret sins. 
Very often the result is amazing. 
Instead of being content with a 
General Absolution following a Gen- 
eral Confession, like a garden roller 
over the casts, we are on our knees 
before God crying “Who can un- 
derstand his errors? Cleanse thou 
me from secret faults.” “Mine ini- 
quities have taken hold upon me, 
so that I am not able to look up; 
they are more than the hairs of mine 
head: therefore my heart faileth me. 
Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: 
O Lord, make haste to help me.”— 
(J. E. Roberts’ “Private Prayers 
and Devotions”)—James Hastings. 


991. Soiled—Slightly 


Two young ministers were walking 
along a street in London in which 
there were displayed for sale many 
old or second-hand clothes. Sud- 
denly they saw a suit hung at the 
side of a window on which was a 
tag with these words, “Slightly 
soiled, greatly reduced in price.” 
“What a splendid text for a sermon 
to young men,” exclaimed one of the 
ministers. “We young people get 
soiled so slightly, just seeing a vul- 
gar show in a theater, just reading 
a coarse book, just allowing ourselves 
a little indulgence in dishonest or 
lustful thought, just slightly soiled, 
and lo, when the time comes for 
our manhood to be appraised, we are 
‘greatly reduced in price.’ Our 
charm, our strength is gone.”—J. 
Edwards Park. 


SIN 


992. 
This is not a sin which one can 


commit by accident, and without 
“The unpardonable sin” 


knowing it. 
is not a single act, but a com- 


prehensive state of mind: that is, a 
sin which applies to the whole con-— 
dition to which a man has brought 
himself by repeated perversions, and 
in which you may say his moral con- 


dition is broken down. 


No man ever becomes dissipated 
No man, no matter what : 
his experience may be, can become ~ 
utterly dissipated in a week—and — 
But — 
a man can, by days, and weeks, and © 
months, and years, become so dis- 


at once. 


still less in a day or an hour. 


sipated as to have broken down his 


whole bodily constitution; as to — 


have sapped and sucked dry the 
brain; as to have impaired every 


nerve; as to have overstrained every — 
Every part of a man’s body | 
may be utterly destroyed by dissi- — 


organ. 


pation. 


Now, there is a dissipation of the 
soul which corresponds to the dissi- — 


pation of the body. It comes on by 
the perversion of a man’s reason; 
by the perversion of his moral sym- 


pathies; by the perversion of his _ 


judgment in respect to things right 
and wrong. 
cumulating process. It 
single act. 
result of a long series of various 
acts.—H. W. Beecher. 


is not a 


993. Sinner Needs God 


Your sinfulness is not a reason 
why you should keep away from 
God. It is the very reason why you 
should go to him. He is to your 
soul what the physician is to your 
body. When your body is racked 
with pains, you go to the physician. 
And so, the consciousness of your 
sin, and of the hatefulness of it, is 
the very reason why you should go 
to God.—H. W. Beecher. 


Sin Against the Holy Ghost — 


It is a gradually ac- 


It is the comprehensive 





SOUL—ITS VALUE 


SOUL—ITS VALUE 


994. Life’s Journey—Preparing 
for 
A certain traveller who had a dis- 
tance to go, one part of the road 
leading through green fields, and the 
other through a tangled road of 
brambles and thorns, made great 
preparations for the first part of his 
journey. He dressed himself in 
light and gay clothes, and put a 
nosegay in his bosom, and taking 
a light, slender cane in his hand, 
nimbly proceeded on his way along 
the beaten path across the green 
meadows. The sun shone in the 
skies and on went the traveller, 
comfortably, pleasantly, and delight- 
fully. After a while the road be- 
came rugged, and by the time night 
drew on the traveller was in a 
pitiable plight. His provisions were 
exhausted, his clothes wet through 
and partly torn from his back by the 
briars, his flowers were faded, and, 
weary as he was, his slender cane 
could not bear his weight; a stream 
of water was before him, and dark- 
ness was around him. “Alas!” said 
he, smiting his breast, “I am hungry, 
and have no food; wet to the skin, 
and have no dry clothes; weary, and 
have no staff to rest on; I have a 
stream to cross, and here is no 
boat; I am bewildered, and have 
no guide; it is dark, and I have no 
lantern. Fool that I am! why did I 
not provide for the end of my 
journey as well as the beginning?” 
Time is hastening away. We are all 
travellers. Life is the beginning, 
death the end of our journey— 
Biblical Museum. 


995. Life—Value of 

It was said that Admiral Hunter 
endangered one of his vessels, and 
a court-martial was called to try him. 
Evidence was given that the vessel 
had been seriously injured, and he 
was put upon his defence. His 
answer was, “Gentlemen, all the evi- 


327 


dence you have heard is true, but 
you have not heard the reason why 
the vessel was injured. I ordered 
the vessel to be put about. Why? 
There was a man overboard, and 
I hoped to save him; and, gentle- 
men, I deem it that the life of a 
private sailor in Her Majesty’s navy 
is worth all the vessels that float 
upon the seas.”—Denton. 


996. Lost Souls 


Travellers sometimes find in 
lonely quarries, long abandoned or 
once worked by a vanished race, 
great blocks squared and dressed, 
that seem to have been meant for 
palace or shrine. But there they 
lie neglected and forgotten, and the 
building for which they were hewn 
has been reared without them. Be- 
ware lest God’s grand temple should 
be built up without you, and you be 
left to desolation and decay.—Mac- 
laren. 


997. Lost Souls—Saving 


A man once dreamed that he was 
swept into heaven, and he was there 
in the glory world, and oh, he was 
so delighted to think that he had at 
last made heaven. All at once one 
came to him and said, “Come, I 
want to show you something.” And 
he took him to the battlements, and 
said, “Look down yonder; what do 
you see?” 

“T see a very dark world.” 

“Look and see if you know it.” 

“Why, yes,” he said, “that is the 
world I have come from.” 

“What do you see?” 

“Why, men are blindfolded there, 
many are going over a precipice.” 

“Well, will you stay here and en- 
joy heaven, or will you go back to 
earth and spend a little longer time 
and tell those men about this world?” 

He was a worker who had been 
discouraged like Elijah. He awoke 
from his sleep, and said: “I have 
never wished myself dead since.” 


328 


998. Men—Worth of 


A devotee to Mammon once re- 
ceived a lesson from John Bright, 
who did not seem to pay to him, 
the possessor of the purse, sufficient 
homage. The rich man pompously 
said, “Do you know, sir, that I am 
worth a million sterling?” “Yes,” 
said the irritated but calm-spirited 
respondent, “I do; and I know that 
it is all you are worth.”—Wit and 
Wisdom. 


999. Opportunities—Laziness and 


The Russians have a fable about 
a miller who was too lazy to repair 
the leak in his dyke, through which 
the water escaped which should have 
turned his mill, but who flies into a 
passion with his fowls and kills 
them because he catches them drink- 
ing the water. So men lose the Op- 
portunities of fife and salvation, let 
them all slip by one by one, and 
then lay the blame upon some in- 
significant thing, and quarrel with 
themselves and the world about that, 
as if it were a matter of vital in- 
portance.—B. 


rooo. Saving Souls 


When the King of Greece came 
over to this country, a member of 
his suite had a most beautiful dog, 
which during the voyage fell over- 
board. His master entreated the 
captain to stop the ship and rescue 
the dog; but the captain did not 
deem the matter of so much im- 
portance, and having the King on 
board refused to stop. What did 
the master do? He asked, “Would 
you stop the ship if it had been a 
man?” “Certainly.” And before 
they could hinder him he had flung 
himself into the sea. The ship was 
stopped and not only the man but 
the dog was rescued too. And all 
because the man, devoted to the 
dog, identified himself with him in 
his peril, and braved even death it- 
self to save him. Even a King was 


SOUL—ITS VALUE 


stopped by such devotion. 


Fullerton. 


roor. Son—Lost 


lowing remarkable 


the shoulder and said, 
please give me a dime.’ 


father. ‘Father, 
me?’ I asked. Throwing his arms 


around me he cried, ‘I have found 7 
you, I have found you, all I have 4 
Men, think of it, that La 
a tramp, stood begging my father for : 


is yours.’ 


ten cents, when for eighteen years 


he had been looking for me, to give 4 


me all he was worth.” 


rooz. Soul Anchored 


In a yacht race in New England — 
running — 


waters, the boats were 
against a very strong tide before a 


light wind. The tide was stronger 
than the wind. The captain of one 


of the racing boats, studying the 
shore, became _ convinced that, 
though the white-winged vessels ap- 
peared to those on deck to be going 
forward, they were in fact drifting 
backward all the time. The shrewd 
Captain suddenly conceived a bril- 
liant idea, and threw over his 
anchor, which, while it would not 
let the boat go forward, held it 
steadfast so that it could not drift 
backward. After a while, when the 
tide turned, so that the boats found 
it possible to make progress, the 
other boats were a mile and a half 
in the rear, and the captain who had 
been wise enough to anchor won the 
race. So in the voyage of life we 
need an anchor to the soul both 
sure and steadfast. The captain’s 
anchor would have done him no 


How — 
much better is a man than a dog! 
Go thou and do likewise—W. Y. 


In one of Dr. J. Wilbur Chap- — 
man’s meetings, a man gave the fol- 
testimony. “I~ 
got off at the Pennsylvania depot — 
one day as a tramp, and for a year — 
I begged on the streets for a liy-_ 
ing. One day I touched a man on ; 
‘Mister, © 
As soon as — 
I saw his face I recognized my old _ 
don’t you know — 





SOUL—ITS VALUE 


good if he had not kept his sails 
in splendid trim, ready to fill with 
the breeze on the first opportunity. 
So the man who waits before the 
Lord wants to wait on his tiptoes, 
with alert watchfulness, ready to use 
the power gained in worship in run- 
ning in the way of God’s command- 
ments and walking through the heat 
where other men faint. 


10037. Soul—A Hungry 


Fred B. Smith, the Young Men’s 
Christian Association worker, was 
once speaking to.a company of men 
in India. While he was talking he 
noticed one of his Mohammedan 
hearers who was now and then 
putting his ‘fingers in his ears in 
order to shut out the words which, 
according to the teaching of his re- 
ligion, he should not hear. But his 
face showed his longing; and some- 
times he would forget to use his 
fingers. At the end of the talk he 
came to the speaker. “I can see yet 
the look of longing on his face, as 
he began to speak,’ Mr. Smith has 
said. “Do you really believe Jesus 
Christ can forgive sins as you say, 
and that he can give peace to those 
borne down by the burden of their 
sins?” the man asked. “Indeed I 
do believe it,’ was the answer; “he 
can do just what he says.” A mo- 
ment the Mohammedan paused. 
Then he threw back his shoulders, 
and said with an air of conviction: 
“Then he will conquer the world.” 
And with a sigh he turned and left 
the room. Let us believe in his 
power to forgive and believing yield 
ourselves in submission. 


1004. Soul—A Lost 


A clever young student joined the 
American Bar, and soon after a 
brilliant young man took him by the 
hand and said, “Now, let me give you 
a piece of advice. Have your name 
taken off the church-roll, burn your 
Bible, and then you will make your 
mark.” The young barrister listened 


329 


politely, but heeded not the advice. 
A quarter of a century later he met 
the miserable wreck of this same 
brilliant young man. With blood- 
shot eye and matted hair, he extended 
to him his hand and said, “For 
God’s sake, give me a _ half-dollar, 
and let me get out of this town to 


get off this spree.”—Christian World 
Pulpit. 


1005. Soul-Bankruptcy 


I have seen men, that had lived 
with a great circuit of prosperity, 
disbranched by commercial revul- 
sions, who yet stood, in adversity, 
nobler, riper, better than ever they 
were with all their environments of 
wealth. And I have seen persons 
who have come to bankruptcy, and 
sold their houses, and their musical 
instruments, and their very cradles, 
and were stripped of everything 
without; but, oh, woe! that was as 
nothing to the bankruptcy within. 
All courage gone; all hope gone; all 
faith gone; no sweetness; no love; 
no trust; only whining, querulous 
despondency! Of all bankruptcies in 
the world, that of a man’s soul and 
disposition is the most pitiful—H. 
W. Beecher. 


1006. Soul—Contest for 


Some of you may have seen the 
celebrated painting by Retsch, in 
which, with wondrous skill, he has 
portrayed a game of chess between 
Satan and a young man, who has 
staked his soul on the issue. The 
truth and vivid power of the repre- 
sentation; the different expression in 
the faces of the players; the gay, 
heedless look of the young man, all 
unconscious of his peril; and the 
cunning, hellish leer of the Fiend, as 
the chances seemed to turn in his 
favor, can never be forgotten by any 
who have once beheld them. But 
how much more graphic and solemn 
is the scene which the Divine pencil 
has drawn—Christ and Satan bat- 
tling for the soul of man! Nor is 


330 


it picture merely; it is real. The 
contest is actually going forward, 
going forward now, going forward 
in your own spiritual history. 
trenched within your heart, “the 
Prince of Power of the Air” plies 
all his weapons of falsehood and de- 
lusion and worldly enchantments to 
maintain his fatal mastery over 
you; while at the door stands the 
crucified One—pity in His eye and 
salvation in His hands—summoning 
you to thrust out the deceiver, and 
yield the palace to the sweet con- 
trol of His love.—G. B. Ide. 


ro0o7. Soul—Cry of the 


A marble statue of a kneeling girl 
with face upon an open book was 
placed by Queen Victoria in an 
English church, as a memorial to the 
royal princess who was found with 
her dead cheek resting upon the 
words of her open Bible. ‘Come 
unto me all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest.” 

In a near tenement of lower New 
York lay a dying woman with a 
husband, brutal through drink. The 
place was noisy and foul and dark, 
but the missionary kept at her post. 

“T’ll go soon,’ said the sufferer, 
“there is nothing more you can do— 
only stay—tell me the words again.” 
So over and over, until the angel 
of death had sealed the ears and 
closed the lips, the dying woman 
tried to repeat with the missionary— 
“Come unto me all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden and I will give you 
rest.” 

Whether in castle, or palace, or 
tenement home, the human soul cries 
out with the same longing which 
can only be satisfied and comforted 
by the love of God. 


1008. Souls—Ignorance of 

Last week I was visiting the home 
of a famous manufacturer and he 
took me out to his farm. He showed 
me his cattle. Above the head of 


In-: 


SOUL—ITS VALUE 


each heifer and each cow was the 
pedigree. The most careful record 
was kept on every animal. A blue- 
print he had in his library at home 
of every one of those animals, and 
yet when we began to talk about 
the labor problem in his own plant 
I asked him how many of. those 
people did he know about and he 
told me—I quote his words—“Why, 
they are all alike to me, Mr. Babson. 


I don’t know one from the other.” — 


Later in the evening—it was during 
the Christmas vacation, a few weeks 
ago, a young fellow came in, drove 
up to the house in a fancy auto- 
mobile and came in and asked for 
his only daughter to take her to a 
party. I didn’t like the looks of the 
fellow very well, and after they had 
gone out I said to him, “Who is that 
chap?” The father said, “I don’t 
know, some friend of Mary’s.” He 
had every one of his cows blue 
printed, but he didn’t know the name 
of the man who didn’t deliver her 
until two o’clock the next morning, 
and that man is one of the largest 
manufacturers in his city—Roger 
Babson. 


z009. Soul—Purchased 


Kiku’s father was a farmer. When 
she was nearly fifteen he concluded 
that he must have an _ up-to-date 
farming implement. He had no 
money but he had a daughter. So 
his daughter he sold to a Kobe den 
for 350 yen, and in his field their 
appeared a new farming implement, 
and in the village bank a deposit of 
100 yen or so to his credit. 
Kiku hated the life and pitifully 
pleaded with her father to take her 
out. He turned deaf ears to her 
entreaties until one day hearing the 
Gospel preached by a traveling 
evangelist he became a Christian. 





But | 


Then he realized what he had done © 


and would move heaven and earth 
to release his daughter. But there 
was not enough money in the bank 
and the farming implement was too 


SOUL—ITS VALUE 


rusty to be sold. What could he do! 
He could not borrow the money. 
His neighbors were as poor as he. 
His relatives were poorer. The 
daughter continued to plead. Finally 
in his desperation, he walked several 
miles to the home of a missionary 
and told her of his plight. Now 
this missionary was preparing to go 
home on her furlough, her first 
furlough, and in that morning’s mail 
had come a check for her traveling 
expenses. But what was a furlough 
to saving a soul! Without hesita- 
tion, she turned enough money over 
to the father to retrieve his daughter 
and Kiku was purchased again. 


zo1ro. Soul—Riches of the 


Some years ago a famous physician 
had a unique experience while at- 
tending a patient from the Orange 
Free State. During one of his visits 
his attention was attracted to a 
bright blue stone with a tiny brilliant 
point. Observing this the patient 
asked the doctor to examine it, ex- 
plaining that it was a mineralogical 
curiosity. He begged him to accept 
it as a gift, though it would be 
valuable only as a curiosity. One 
day the physician decided to show it 
to a jeweler and find out how much 
of the glittering matter lay hidden 
from view. The jeweler advised 
him not to break it as it was an 
interesting specimen, but he insisted. 
The lump of clay was crushed, and, 
lo, both were astonished to find a 
valuable diamond. 

That illustrates the experience of 
many a soul-winner. How often a 
soul is won that possesses un- 
dreamed-of possibilities. How often 
God crushes some stony heart of sin 
only to reveal a diamond that will 
sparkle as the stars for ever and 
ever. 


rorz. Soul—Save One 

Some one asked a lighthouse 
keeper at Amagansett, L. I., if he 
didn’t get lonesome at his work. His 


331 


eyes fairly danced as he answered, 
“No, indeed! I never get lonesome 
since I saved my man.” How many 
had he saved? Just one! And that 
inspired him so that the many 
dreary days that followed he felt no 
loneliness. Christian, have you saved 
your man? Nothing will so inspire 
you and banish gloom and dis- 
couragement. 


ro1z. Soul—Starving the 


In Central Australia grows a 
plant, called the Nardoo. Its seeds 
formed for months together almost 
the sole food of a party of explorers 
who some years ago attempted to 
cross the continent. The Nardoo 
satisfied their hunger; it produced 
a pleasant feeling of comfort and 
repletion. And yet day by day King 
and his friends became weaker and 
more emaciated upon this diet. Their 
flesh wasted from their bones, their 
strength was reduced to an infant’s 
feebleness. At last they perished 
of starvation. When analyzed the 
Nardoo bread was ascertained to be 
destitute of certain nutritious ele- 
ments indispensable to the support 
of an European, though an Au- 
tralian savage might for awhile 
find it beneficial. Is it not so in the 
experience of those who are seeking 
their portion in worldly things ?— 
Hugh MacMillan. 


ro13. Soul—Value of Humblest 


I will give you an illustration in 
an incident that happened on my 
way back home. About seven 
o’clock one night, when we were in 
the Red Sea, the whistle blew and 
every one had to go on deck. The 
captain while in his room had 
thought he heard a cry for help, so 
all were summoned to the deck, the 
passenger list was read and all were 
accounted for. The same process 
with the crew disclosed that one was 
missing. Meantime, since the whistle 
had blown, the ship had drifted 


332 


probably five miles. But a boat was 
lowered and four Englishmen in it 
pulled back into the darkness. After 


a period of suspense they returned, © 


raising the cry that they had found 
the man. Did anyone on that ship 
raise any objection to the great effort 
that was made to save that poor 
black man? No.—By G. H. Bickley. 


101g. Soul—Wings of 


If you will go to the banks of a 
little stream and watch the flies that 
come to batle in it, you will notice 
that, while they plunge their bodies 
in the water, they keep their wings 
high out of the water; and after 
swimming about a little while they 
fly away with their wings unwet 
through the sunny air. Now that 
is a lesson for us. Here we are im- 
mersed in the cares and business of 
the world; but let us keep the wings 
of our soul, our faith, and our love 
out of the world, that with these 
unclogged we may be ready to take 
our flight to heaven.—James Inglis. 


rors. Souls—Hungry 


“Sahib, we would see Jesus. My 
village is over yonder three miles 
away. We have given up idolatry, 
and we wish to embrace the Jesus 
religion. Come with me; the en- 
tire village is waiting for your com- 
ing.” Before I could reply another 
man stepped forward, and then a 
third, and lo! a fourth, and from 
the lips of each fell the Macedonian 
crys. Pasten Mito ue ther ilast) iman : 
“Sahib, this is the fourth year that 
I have come to you and every time 
you have sent me away sorrowing. 
Oh, Sahib, give me a message of 
hope this time.” With a breaking 
heart I had to say, “Your village 
is eight miles away, and I dare not 
even encourage you till I have a 
teacher for you. Be patient another 
year.” This is what occurred last 
year in a little village in the jungles 
of India immediately after a bap- 


SOUL—ITS VALUE 


tismal service in which the writer 
had the joy of baptizing 152 men, 
women and children (representing 
all the families there). In the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in In- 
dia there are in all 150,000 who, like 
these inquirers, are waiting for a 


chance to confess the Christ openly — 


in baptism.—Herman J. Schultz. 


zor6. Souls—Rescue of 


A story of heroism that evokes 
admiration is reported from the 
North Sea. Forty miles east of 
Lowestoft, the trawler Gertrude was 
in danger of destruction; her sails 
had been blown to ribbons, every- 
thing movable had been swept from 
her decks, and five of her crew 
drowned; only one of the sailors and 
the boy cook still remained on board. 
The Ramsgate trawler, Alfred, tried 
time after time to get near the dis- 
tressed ship, and time after time the 
line which was thrown was either 
too short, or the wearied survivors 
on the ship failed to grasp it. Dur- 
ing the night the two vessels kept in 
touch by means of flares, and in the 
morning, Alfred Freeman, an ap- 
prentice, aged eighteen, volunteered 
to go in a small boat to the rescue. 
Alone, in a mountainous sea, he 
sculled his craft to the Gertrude’s 
side, and was helped on board as a 
great wave stove in the boat against 
the smack’s side. He was able to 
catch the next line that was thrown, 
and both men and the boat were 
saved. All honor to the young hero, 
and let those who would save sink- 
ing souls take example from his 
deed. 


ro17. Souls—Stewards of 


A friend of mine who has traveled 
largely in Oriental lands during re- 
cent years told me the other day 
this interesting story of Mahatma 
Gandhi. Gandhi conducts an Ashrama 
or Monastery in India and one day 
a Parsee came and was admitted into 





a a ee ee ae ee 


SOUL—ITS VALUE 


this monastery on taking its vows 
of purity, one of which is to always 
speak the truth. 

A little later this Parsee pupil 
came to Gandhi in shame and con- 
fessed that he had told a lie, where- 
upon Gandhi shut himself up and 
fasted, taking no food for two whole 
days, for said he: “The man was 
my pupil, committed to my care. If 
I had performed my whole duty as 
a teacher, as I should have done, 
this Parsee would not have com- 
mitted the sin of lying.” So Gandhi 
assumed the sin as his own. 

What a revolution in moral and 
spiritual circles in America would 
be speedily brought about if all our 
pastors and Sunday School teachers 
felt as keenly as that their duty as 
stewards of the souls over which 
they are placed! 


ro18. Souls—Winning 


Over the door of the new church 
(at Finnieston, Glasgow) are carved 
the three Hebrew words translated 
in our Bible, “He that winneth 
souls is wise.’ They were put there 
as an indication of the object of the 
church’s existence, and also in the 
hope that some Jews passing by 
might see them, and come in to 


333 


worship the God of Abraham. Dr. 
Bonar preached from these words 
on the day on which the church was 
opened, explaining that “winning” 
was the word used to describe a 
hunter stalking game, and reminding 
“soul-winners” that their work must 
be done in a wise way. “How care- 
fully David prepared to meet Go- 
liath! He chose five smooth stones 
out of the brook. He did not as- 
sume that one would by lying to his 
hand when he needed it. Never go 
to the Lord’s work with meagre 
preparation.” (Reminiscences of An- 
drew. A. Bonar)—James Hastings. 


rorg. Value of Soul-Life 


A. book is an invention by which 
men live after they are dead, so far 
as this world is concerned. A hymn 
or song that deserves to live is 
lifted above persecution. The ty- 
rant or despot cannot touch it. But 
oh! neither book, nor hymn, nor 
song, any product of the human 
mind, is to be compared with the 
immortal life itself; and ye that save 
one soul, and lift it, by the power of 
your instrumentality, blessed of God, 
into the sphere of immortality and 
glory, shall shine as the stars in the 
firmament !—H. W. Beecher. 


’ hap 





TOPICAL INDEX 


PAGE 
Accountability to God.......... 86 
A Mother’s Forgiveness......... 262 
Anti-Christ—Picture of......... 296 
PEER NS shal Wid iv pis sale ee 296 
Appearances—Deceptive........ 41 
Appearing Before God.......... 86 
Assurance—God’s............05 41 
Assurance—Ground of.......... 41 
Assurance, Lost and Found...... 42 
Atonement—Accepted.......... 37 
Atonement a Cleansing Fountain. 37 


Atonement—Despising.......... 37 
Atonement Necessary........... 38 
TEI ELANU OY AM HSL ys gd side b 38 
Attention—Concentrated........ 214 
Backslider—Reclaimed......... 227 
Backsliding—Difficulty of....... 226 
MORETTI G LAVES .iford pbc da S's ake os 233 
Baptism of the Spirit—Finney’s.. 108 
RaERALMNIGUEE 62 5c S/otly bc luts end dans + 154 
Beauty—Temporal and Eternal... 183 
Beggars—Christian............. 117 
Beginning—God in the......... 89 
OES a 189 
Believers—Faulty.............. 142 
Believing—What Is............ 200 
Best—Giving Our.............. 117 
BiblieweA Living. ci... eas wie. 46 
ROL MCE oth osha ty iia Sy ots 46 
Bible and Business............. 46 
Bible-and Science... i... 6s a 47 
PLUG PROT BNE 6 os 5 nase aia s)e 47 
Bible—Comfort in............. 47 
Bible—Comfort of. ............ 48 
Bible Difficulties............... 48 
Pele TOUTES 6 i. oc die 48 
IME ERMRG A otake es PG six asia ciel 48 
Bible—Following the........... 48 
Bible—Forsaking the........... 49 
Bible—Half Reading........... 49 
Bible—Holding to the.......... 49 
Bible—Holy Spirit in the........ 108 
Bible Indestructible............ 50 
Bible Its Own Witness.......... 50 
Bible—Leaf by Leaf............ 51 
Bible—-Light on of oe. fs FAS 51 
Bible—Loving the Author of..... 51 
Bible—Modern................ 51 
NEAT Ts CT) gay ee le | ne a 52 
Bible Reading—Daily.......... 52 
Bible—The Personal........... 52 


Bible—Way of Life. ............ 
Bible—Wisdom of.............. 
Bible—Word of Life............ 
Blind Eyes Opened............. 
Blood—Purchased by........... 
Bolted to the Rudder........... 
orn (Apainy' 41! 4/005 (oe ees ae 


eS ee ee ee eo 


Brother—Coming of a.......... 
Brother—Helping a Weak....... 
Brother—Helping Blind......... 
BSCPEHEL NOL.) (S75 thie (oe ee 


Cannibal, Tonmiod s Soro 85 1 ay Gore 
bare G00 62 ee a nk eee 
Changing the Appearance....... 
Chaplain of Lunatics........... 
Character—Beauty of.......... 
Character—Faulty............. 
Character—Sterling............ 
Charity—Christian............. 
Charity—Display of. .......)... 
PADI: LAIN: ty Uy wea ey eaetee 
Gamld—Saving a. ay... Jeativiaee 
Rd INI sie es Gila eee 
Children—Claims of............ 
Children—Heathen............. 
Children—Jesus and............ 
Pettren-—-LOSt .)...\l) hive ae pees 
Meares FIRINTY 6). oC) a mea oa 
Suree Adin...) uk cai eae ¢ 
Coticn a wMaenet. {\) ee Sewn oe 
Carist-—Coming toe 5552. ok aes 
Christ—Condescension of....... 
Ratie ee planing. 6). 4 ewe foes 
Carita AOC Dy iy els dw gee 
Crrister- 1826 Of6). 55 Jie ve we ee 
Grieuan toe Heart. ook oe 
Satie Wl es tile gulos eae 
Sorraste RAK eness 2053 OV als cla 
Christ—Necessity of............ 
pris Glur Pea i le ae eee 
Christ Our Substitute........... 
Christ—Power in. . 2.5... bees. 
Serer iets SO) oi sie ak aa eee 
Forish-—ppirit: OF). picts Ab oN ta ay ores 
RoAPCIet. SEG, LOOT &) te sine eee a hates 
Lorimet the Livht:: 3 tke aaa ecs 
Christ—The Unchangin 
Cortteie- 1 rust it Meo. d we aes 





We ey tn Be 


336 _ TOPICAL INDEX 


PAGE 
Christ—Union With............ 70 
Christ—Upheld by............. Ot 
CTISE WV ALCITAS Ss tacal eke pene ioe 71 
Christ—Waiting for............ 71 
Christian ‘Achivatyvius). baie toate 118 
Christian—A Genuine.......... 142. 
Chistian Murloneh inv) ate hikes 142 
Christian—Narrow............. 142 
Christian—Prostrate ! i... Mone. 142 
Christian—Rejoicing. .......... 142 
Gatto k ew O ket Eh, Gaewen AUan ae Oi Pet). * 143 
Christian—Why Bea........... 143 
Christian Workers Wanted...... 118 
Christianity—Concealed........ 144 
Christianity—Necessary........ 144 
Christianity—Practical......... 144 
Christians—Absorbing.......... 144 
Christians—Agegressive.......... 145 
Christian S\ Bunce Oana! itu!) 6 145 
Christians—Conforming......... 145 
Christians —Oragya Sue Viveeey aie's « 145 
Christians--Crazyi oui Pa eae 145 
Christians——Earthly ......0..... 146 
Christians—-Friendly...../..).; 146 
Christians—Growing........... 146 
Christians—Hoarding........... 247 
Christians——Honest a.) Sia 146 
Christians—Indifferent......... 147 
Christians—Lukewarm......... 147 
Ohyistrans-—POsing Oia vole were 147 
Christians-——-oilent cia pe ge 148 
Christians—Strugegling.......... 148 
Christians—Sunshine........... 148 
Christians—Tempering......... 148 
Christians—Unprogressive....... 148 
Christians—Worthless.......... 149 
Christians-——Young 6. 6. 02.2207. 149 
HAG SE Tiends ane Nia al ee, 67 
Christ’s Mediatorship........... 83 
Cohreisturs OONSOlAtOT Avr) ieidieine ot 183 
Corres Al Coad ol) Mn oe /eug hielo 4 154 
Church a Lighthouse... 22... !.. 154 
Church—A Prayerless.......... 154 
Church—A Slumbering......... 155 
(Sharon Attendance nies thu 155 
Church—Decaying............. 159 
Church—Need of. ............. 159 
Church—Petrified.............. 160 
Church—Respectable........... 160 
Church—Salvation in........... 161 
Church—Scandals in........... 161 
Cen Kraay Ay AN i cists} 161 
Church—Trouble in............ 162 
Church) Decale eiaion ete). wis 155 
Church: Behavior sai iaine'e aie» 156 
Church—Disturbed............ 156 
Church—Drawing.......6.s.5-: 156 
Church—Forgetting............ 157 
Chureh—-Rrozen oc. isis wees 157 


Church Giving...... 
Church-Going...... 


Church—Hindrance in Joining... 


Church—Judging the 


Church Members—Faulty....... 
Church Members—Frozen....... 
Church Members—Gloomy...... 
Church Members—Ideal........ 
Church Members—Untrue...... 


Churches—Real..... 
Churches—Worldly. . 


Cleansing—Constant........... 


Cleansing Power.... 
Closing Ranks...... 
Collection—Fear of. . 


Comfort—Warren Hastings’..... 


Conduct—Private... 
Confession—A Noble 
Confession—Christ’s. 
Confession of Sins... 
Contorming oP eae 
Conscience—A Live. 


Conscience—Awakened... ai 
Conscience—Educated.......... 
Conscience—Faulty..... 0. ..2.% 


Conscience—Fearful . 


Conscience—Hoodwinked....... 
Conscience—Infallible.......... 


Conscience—Seared . 


Conscience—The Awakened est 
Conscience—The Guide......... 


Conscience—Thief’s . 
Conscience—Voice of 


Consecration—Complete........ 
Consecration—Development of... 


Consecration—Entire 


Consecration of Talents......... 
Consecration—Whitefield’s ...... 
Consulting the Architect........ 


Contrary People.... 
Conversion of Childre 
Con Version rains 


Conversion and Restitution...... 
Conversion and Sanctification... 
Conversion—A Doctor’s........ 
Conversion—A Thief’s 
Conversion—Charlotte Elliott’s.. 


Conversion—Fruit of 
Conversion—Gradual 


Conversion—Hindrance to....... 
Conversion—John Wanamaker’s.. 
Conversion—Manifest.......... 
Conversion of Infidel........... 
Conversion of an Infidel........ 
Conversion—Unexpected........ 
Conversions—Early......2.5.08 
Convert—Dying Man’s......... 


Converted—Compani 
Converted in Manger 


43 @ 2. 0 0 OE Ce 


Py sirvie s vs im » eae 


o fc jo @) 9 @ 6? Gres ee 


o ¢ @ 6) w yore eae) ee 


ole Re be Sle elem 
© 'ohre 6! Sie lite sie 
© 8 2.6 baie eaee a eee 
CM wk oe wh KO en NT 
ele) p) ee oe oe eel ene 


]@ te) 6.6 wie (sl RE ete 


o 68 6 owe 60 @ ws 


2 ¢ © ‘0 @ se )e, eo) 01 ek 


ee @e we we ewes 


© \@ 6 ee 0 8. ei wee 


a ails e aft eae 
3 8 rare rel 


® @, 000) 019) Sone 


ele 2 048 © ee Noe 


ons of the. 





TOPICAL INDEX 





PAGE 

Converting Power............-- 283 
Counterfeit Christians.......... 227 
Creed and Deed............... 57 
Renee TIC LOGOS Ss ghee acs ce wee 118 
OS TO Sa Bn ere Sarre 190 
MUUMIME RIUM, 5 ng dss namie oe bleeds 190 
GS A 39 
se) ee 164. 
ReRtPE ROTI OF yy ed avewilae'S Ba 215 
Cross Preached by Tragedy...... 71 
Cross—Reform Through........ 72 
Cross—World Needs the........ 72 
Crowns—Corruptible........... 286 
pe ricinied With Christy. <.i 2.8: 39 
Wty —paved by a..../.4. 6b lye 288 
| Danger—Seeking............... 53 
Mi jeatin Release... 00g) hs... 183 
egthee Sleep oh (267. fo 184 
Death—Beautiful.............. 184 
Death—Dark Room of......... 184 
Death—Destroyer of........... 185 
Weath——-Pear Of... 20... ee ess 186 
Death—Honorable............. 186 
Lieath—Infidel’s.. 2 ene s es 186 
Death—Miserable.............. 186 
Death—Remembrance in....... 186 
Death Sentence Reversed....... 187 
Death—Significance of.......... 187 
Death—Triumph in............ 188 
TOGA VANE STUN DRATIO. Gs. aces. 188 
Fr Rls Ns ta Tl ee aa 184 
Decision—Early................ 190 
PORCINE TA. ig ium oie sis 190 
PieusiOn- i astane es. kh a I9I 
Decision--—Intelligent 3. of ob . I9I 
Decision—Moment of.......... 191 
Decision—Possible............. 19I 
Decision—Youthful............. 192 
Heeds and Creeda.ii.c. baste, 2. 56 
Deeds—Power of Good......... 56 
Defender of the Defenceless...... 61 
Remy Waneeroue ls ka aes 192 
RMON? POMEL Ry edlare ao) CA od eee 192 
Devil—Agents of. 2... 0... 0..05. 297 
Devil—Bequeathed to.......... 297 
Devil—Lack of the. ....5..25.4% 297 
MMO TiFecapuIst, OF 2s fan vb bck hie ae 297 
Devil—There Isa.............. 298 
Parte Niet hoe 2)! os Oe Moke 298 


Devils—Powerless.............. 299 


Devotion—Ignorant............ 172 
Difficulties a Blessing........... 305 
Disciple ¢ Treason... soa se ve 227 
Doctrine—Fake...:......0..0.. 299 
Double-Minded Men........... 227 
Duty—Evading................ 118 
Duty—Wavering in............ 118 


337 

PAGE 
Education—Marks of........... 215 
Election—Doctrine of.......... 181 
Enemies—Capturing........... 150 
Enemy—Converting an......... 181 
Enemy—Kept From) .... 03 )..4. 43 
Enthusiasm Killed............. 62 
Equality Before Him........... 143 
Escape—Narrow,. ¢ oo. ..0cnse eee 232 
Evil—Deliverance From........ 212 
AL PT the 8 20) ia Oe eee 197 
Evil—Overcoming.............. 273 
Evil—Overcoming..:..........-. 305 
Evangelism—Dead............. 283 
Evangelism—Drastic........... 283 


Everybody Somebody to Jesus... 72 


Heatmple—Power:of\' i): a. 3 198 
Example—Reproducing......... 198 
Example—Saving .).........-+- 198 
Hxeuses—Weak.....000;ae0e05- 197 
Hyes-—=-Bhinded op siiio peer we 232 
HaGes-soBbotyer i. §os 2 oUe soe santas 262 
Pee OAL Wee fe alls co diel PREG are a 201 
Faith and Freedom....5......4. 201 
PANCI ATV PLONE 3s we 8 bh ah ed 202 
Faith and Obedience........... 202 
Haath, aid Works t) pit, ieee oe 202 
BPaith—Childhke. oo. bese 203 
Pawn Daring 20 ils ie ee 203 
BATE IA TIN ek a Ry eae 203 
Faith— Definition of. 8 6. 604.05 203 
Harth-—Batlure Of.a00 0) aon ae 203 
Faith—Foundation of.......... 204 
Weare i kr00 ys slo Shae a ela 204 
Faith—Justification by......... 205 
Pain eader . . .). sas Se fies 205 
Pantie -Latkle >. i) sie eh, Pee 209 
Haith—No Fear in. 002.4. .85 206 
Faith—Nothing Impossible With. 206 
Faith or Presumption. .........4 206 
Farth—Reward of... 00... ke ee 207 
Feaithi—~pimple. ib si. adc Oe bee 208 
Faith—Smouldering............ 207 
Paith= Triumph of. 2. feces 207 
Faith—Unwavering............ 208 
Faith—Unwearied.............. 208 
Pasth---Weals. 06a oe dees 209 
Faith Without Feeling.......... 209 
Faith—Working by............ 210 
Paitntal to the End > oi. sok 4: 204 
Falsehood—Fatal.............. 305 
Father—Discovering........... 81 
Hather—loy Of 4.41) Amana Penns 82 
Pathers: Energy, 0. te he Sho as 82 
Hather's: Loves eh... ie, veka a8 82 
Pears Lacking 5s conoid Ba 43 
Rear Removedies (ono 1s daltaea te 43 
Fellowship—Earthly............ 57 
ree POON she. aaah wee ee 200 


338 


First; Wrong ‘Deed ) wsciscss eee 
Foes, Within eG ie eae 
Potgrven Debts sii wil een 
Forgiveness and Progress........ 
Forgiveness From God 
Forgiveness of Enemies. . ia 
Formalitye gai ach Sonam 
Friend—A Faithful............. 
Friend Wanted... pata 

Future—Gambling on.......... 
Future Retribution............. 


Crain Afi: OSs f°. Sie ee 
CSift-—-—Costhy. Yio aati ides aot pans 
Gift Doubting: ieee ns 
Gitt-—The Best...) scales aes 
(aift-—The BestiAliog gaia tak alee 
Cifte--—Roval ey. Sie a) ae, 
Gifts—Withholding............ 
Giver—The Ai, URL Oa 


Givers—Three Kinds........... 
CRAMITI ONIN Dealer yy atoms ares Wee me a ly 
Giving—Constant........ AED 


Giving—Forced................ 
Giving-—God’s 
Giving—God’s Plan............ 
Giving—Incense of. ............ 
CSivatig a JOyo in ay ili antl 
Giving—Lukewarm............ 


Or he! ke. e e).e Kor ue) 6.9 4 9,00) 6) |B) @, ue 


Giving—Open Handed.......... 
Giving—Reward of............. 
Giving—Rovyali cic aedtina ae 


Giving—Sacrificial............. 
Caving to Christ vic's peucon ne leh 
Giving—Voluntary............. 
God—Argument for............ 
God: Banished). 40 2a ee 7). 
God—Fag Enditoivie: 0. es 
God—Fighting Against......... 
God-—Hinding sae ay 
ROL TICATS UT dt. Ciith t air Mh me dads yikes | 
God—Instructing.............. 
God in the Beginning........... 
(sod Need OF 2 Wars ane. ee 
God—Raébbitig 72 evans. 
Grod-—-Seeing yi tiie Vests Wonk 
God-— Troubling fen. te ds 4 
God: Understands: Fie N.4 2.4. 


God’s Comforting Presence.... 

God's Concealments> dun fo... 
(rodés——Fralse so) 4/7 See Be 
God’s Forgiveness Absolute...... 
God’s Gift Undervalued......... 
God’s Goodness Waits for Men... 
God's Instrumentals eres 


PAGE 
395 


150 


253 
216 


TOPICAL INDEX 


PAGE 
God’s Kingdom Coming......... 92 
God's Light)... 44. eee 92 | 
God’s Power Needed........... 274 
God’s Promises Precious......... 93 & 
God's Protection..\)"; 0.2. 44 
God’s Record Book {3a 188 
God’s Word Powerful........... 54 j 
Gold and God? 0.\t),, 4a 253 
Gold—Better Than............. 253 @ 
Gold—Honor Above............ 254 
Gospel According to You........ 150 
Gospel—Power of. ......00..0.05 284 
Gospel—Wrong Use of.......... 274 
Grace—Door of God’s.......... 95 
Grace—Growing in............. 96 
Grace—Growth' in... eee 96 
Grace—Miracle of.............- 96 
Grace—Saved by. 2). -2i).jq aes 96 
Grace—Saving .. 6.40) 96 4 
Grace—Sufficient. .. al sau 97 @ 
Grace—Sufficient....4......... 97 
Gratitude... 0S 020). ae 97 
Gratitude a Debt. whe, oe ae 
Gratitude—Unexpressed ee 98 4 
Graves and Tunnels: . 77.0070 095 100 
Greed——Fatal : ;...) 0) See 254 9 
Greed—Whip of............/.. 254 
Guidance—Divine.............. 131 9 
Guide—Father as.............. 82 
Habits—Exchanging............ 274 4 
Handicaps—Overcome.......... 198 
Happiness—Art of... 2... 00, #2120 
Heart—A Believing............ 104 
Heart-Breaking Justice......... 233.9 
Heart-Broken Clown........... 104 
Heart-—Gift of , >. 22. 2)4N ieee 105 
Heart—Hardened.............. 105 
Heart—Need of a New......... 105 
Heart—New.. 2... 20.20) (ee 105 
Heart—Refusing the......../2. 106 
Heart—Seeing............0..58 106 
Hearts on Fire. =. 2/3 eau 106 
Heathen—Giving for...... .. 255 
Heaven—A Secular. ......0.... IOI 
Heaven—Arriving in........... IOI 
Heaven—Awaking in........... 101 
Heaven Challenged............. IOI 
Heaven—Clearer View of....... 101 
Heaven—Foregleams of......... 102 
Heaven—Gates of pW aye Opes, 102 
Heaven—Heat of. : . 102 
Heaven in the Heart........... 107 
Heaven—Moved to............ 102 
Heaven—Notes of.............. 102 
Heaven—Prospect of.....0..5.4 103 
Heaven—Treasures in. ene 
Heaven—wWatching in... .i,.0075 103 9 
. Hell—Building His Own........ 197 


TOPICAL INDEX 


PAGE 
Hell—Explaining............... 107 
Help—Neglected............... 120 
Home—Eternal...............-. 114 
Home—Eternal................. 114 
Pere e i ALi. Coa ess 114 
Home, Sweet Home............ 115 
Home—Temporary............. 116 
Home—Worship in............. 116 
Homeless Through Eternity..... 114 
Homes Without Christ.......... 115 
Homeward Bound.............. 116 
Holiness—Beauty of............ 274 
Holy Ghost—Power of.......... 109 
Holy Life—Blessing of.......... 216 
Holy Spirit—Charged by........ 109 
Holy Spirit—Need of........... 109 
Holy Spirit’s Power............ 110 
Honest—Paid to Be............ 255 
Honesty in Business............ 255 
Honor—Badge of.............. 164 
Honor—Sense of............... 62 
Honor Untarnished............ 255 
Hope of Heaven in Old Age..... 104 
Hope—The Only............... 72 
MMAMRE Nie orilale ws Ue se econ 94 
gS ea ea 228 
Hypocrites—Cannot Prevent.... 228 
Hypocrites—Deception of....... 228 
MEIC Oath oi VP ae Seals 6 ole 120 
Us a a RA Oo 121 
Impossible—Nothing........... 121 
Incomplete Character........... 182 
Tetivect (ales hed eae ak eels 306 
Fee a) hs Se ee ae 150 
Infidel—Chastising an...,...... 233 
Infidel—Untruthful.........3.. 229 
Influence—Blessed............. 58 
Influence—Unconscious......... 63 
Ingratitude—Base.............. 229 
Ingratitude—Greatest.......... 230 
Ingratitude of the World........ 230 
BUIRICCIEAR OG Su! de be Suis < aie ares 256 
PBEM Sine ils 8h ay, POS: 306 
Iieniration Gives yh 0. ce. 13! 
Invitation—Personal........... 230 
Invitation—Winsome........... 231 
(ES Lc) SA Sapa ae os ec 72 
Jesus—Divinity of............. 73 
Jesus—How to Shine for........ 121 
Jesus—In Place of.............. 73 
| SENG TINE Cope stars "the, eR Viale re 74 
Jesus—Looling to. ...0......... 215 
Jesus, Lover of My Soul........ 74 
Jesus—Mistaken for............ 74 
Jesus—Name of.............0.- 75 
Jesus—Searching for............ 75 


Jesus—Vision of..............4. 215 


Smutty Waring 26 fi idle ieee a 
jesus—Watting for... 2. 062....4 
Jesus—Work of ..,.........000- 
Judging—Danger in............ 
Judgment and Mercy........... 
Judgment by General Aim....... 
Judgment Coming.............. 
Jadgment: Day sya oe 
Judgment—God’s.............. 
Judgment—Infallible........... 
indement Gerth v0 sC ry ey 
Justice and Friendship.......... 
Justice—Wings of. if... 2... S 
Justification and Sanctification. . . 


Freep: (tiseline | 4 oa nang, Ce 
King—A New, 5.5054 Je. 


Laborers Together. ............ 
mamb’s Hook of Lies ear ira 
baw Evading) oes 
Law—Perfect...............7.. 
Law—Respect for.............. 
Life—Blooming................ 
Life—Brevity of............... 
LO LE LOPTIAL ar Pec s Uk alk eee Ras 
Bire-Giving ‘Breath oo .\ bee en 
Life Minus After-Glow.......... 


bee ien Or Pe Oe eee aes 
Imte-—Value Of is Beye 


Life’s Journey—Preparing for.... 
Lifters and Leaners............. 
Pagote—-A Trail of2 297. Sc rGy eee 
Sek VTE ool hak Wd eats 
ieht—Hiding the... 23. ote 
Light. in» Dark World. oJ). 0... .. 
Living Water Within........... 
PORE Ch) f'n Sato ACID Mk aN onPoeeS coats 
MISES MITHOSE N.S oP end cea 


Lost—Seeking the.............. 
i See ee ee Oe EL RR ig 
Lost Souls—Saving............. 
AVE IASIS UO 2). bons ee eae 
DOVEHSATNS OF oe be Ee a 
Love—Chastening ............. 
Love—Conquest of............. 
Love-—-Crown of. 364 64s Lave es 
Love—Intelligent......... 

Love—Measuring.............. 
Love Never Faileth.»..s5. 020... 
Love—Protecting.............- 
Dave—DSacrificial i.) hese er ose i 
Love—Showing Christ’s......... 
Love—Telegram of............. 


340 TOPICAL INDEX 


PAGE 
Lowers Pest OLS) uly ak area ee 242 
Ueve—lransiorming ? Wiad act 242 
Love—Unboundeéd oil 243 
LIOVEAV O16E 208 Fy Sik Bla DA 243 
OV VV TTT OG hd yea Sa 243 
Love—Winning Power of....... 244 
Love—Wonderful oi ibeu) aaeel 244 
Lovers (uestasn Sin, Sau are eoan 245 
LOWE'S DETVICG) se aks ke 245 
Loyalty—~Power: of. yo) .05 a eeenk a7 
Mais Viale nate Ce Oe iene re 58 
Mansions—Building............ 116 
Nasteriand ‘Pupil. en aera ed 
Nediator——Thes. Svc nia en 79 
Memory+-Precious. 0.00.00 0. 523 
Nene W Oren Of no) VU cine na WN as 328 
Mercy—Long-Suffering......... 94 
Message—Incomplete........... 78 
Minister—Helping the.......... 260 
Minister—Prayer for Unconverted 260 
Minister—Slandering a......... 260 
Ministers—God’s Best.:........ 261 
Miracles Daily lah, aly deve sacs III 
Money nValtie obi eee ey 8s 256 
MONEY) LO. 6 Used WE OU eying 256 
INI DTadMveSer be WC Nea va Le gis 123 
Noral Risbtsu iim aoe tee id ed 63 
Moral Stumbling Blocks........ 98 
Mother—Benjamin West’s...... 264 
Mother—Honoring............. 262 
Mother—John Quincy Adams’... 263 
Mother-—Lincoln’s yup aera 263 
Mother—Lord Macaulay’s...... 263 
Mother—Love of.............. 262 
Mother—Michael Angelo’s...... 263 
Mother—Moody’s.....0......... 264 
Mother—Napoleon’s.. ..5...4.. 264 
Mother—Reunion With......... 263 
Mother—Thomas Edison’s...... 263 
DIG LHEG Waltinie io daar sats 263 
Hila Eage elena Wilrs\ ay b meh RAMU ae tnt 8 hee 269 
IVLOL BET SLUG W siithetin Mon iw A ub 264 
Mother’s Faithfulness.......... 264 
PAOCCI NS teaches howe aay oaks aie AC 264 
Mothers Lovie mu (cpa ante. 265 
MOtDer S PPavers piri itis Ww vm eas 265 
Mother's WP rayersuiy urn dae ad cial 266 
MotherisPridenuiniiractaas 78 ooo 266 
Mother's Sacrifice shine a i a: 267 
Mother's bacrifingy <i fuvanmoh ects 267 
Mother's Shame.) DuG/einae ae «. 268 
Mother’s Suffering............. 268 
Mother's Surprise: $2. Siang witha 268 
Mother's Frouble, joi. etee 268 
Mother's! Voice i) 40.2 Ane 269 
Motive—Inner?. 3.50. ee eee 289 
Nemes (aime Up cite e cts crake mmole 213 


New Birth—Necessity of........ 


New Relationship. . 


Obedience—Value of........... 


pode to Golaswene 


Opportunities—Laziness and..... 
Opportunity—God Gives........ 


Our Assurance..... 
Overcoming....... 


© 0 ec ler & Tel Oey leve are 


Ownership—God’s. 2... ..J0 29 es 


Pardon Claimed... 


Pardon—Humility Obtains...... 
Pardoned—Purchased.......... 


Parents—Duty of.. 
Pardormed i je7\ceheae 


Peace-—Way to. ws), 
Peace With God... 


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Perishing—Rescue of........... 


Personal Work..... 


Oe, See! Je eye a wy eu enne 


Physical Retribution: .\. {gig 
Pilot-—Dropping thes; 3. Ava 
Posséssions—-Love: of)... .g)23 ee 
Postponing the New Life........ 


Power—secret of... 
Practice Prayer.... 
Praise—Sacrifice of. 
Praising Godin ik 
Pray—Teach Us to. 
Pray--Why:. 0)... 


© Slee ¢ Ss ole enaaane 


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Prayer—A Constant Privilege.... 


Prayer a Key... .. 


Prayer and Play... 
Prayer and Practice 
Prayer and Praise. . 


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& Oe 6 Bile ey dia® io oe 


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Prayer and Revivals. Gyae uae 


Prayer Answered... 
Prayer—Child’s. ... 


Prayer—Child’s.... 


Cw ee a a eS Phew, 


ve \* ames) ie at ab ee 


coe os eee Otena le 


Prayer—-Child’s' Saving.) See 
Prayer—Communion in. ......44 
Prayer—Countermanding....... 


Prayer—Faith in... 


Prayers—Father’s. . 
Prayer—Fear of... 
Prayer—Forgiving . 


2 jee & © lene (Orie) Ore 


2 (0) ¢ @ 0 0 lelue ea) Se 


O6 a '¥, se Soha 


Prayer—God’s Power in........ 


Prayer—Lincoln’s. . 
Prayer—Mother’s. . 
Prayer of Infidel... 
Prayer—Power of. . 
Prayer—Prevailing . 
Prayer—Revenge in 
Prayer—Security in 


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TOPICAL INDEX 


PAGE 

PONE SOURCICN iias Ce Pub ewes 8 134 
Prayer—Unanswered........... 139 
Prayer—Unceasing............. 139 
Prayer—Warmth of............ 140 
Prayers—Insincere............. 140 
Prayers, Registered in Heaven... 141 
PART AMOI ie eda deen ss 141 
Preachers—Curse of False....... 261 
Preaching—Sacrificial........... 173 
Prepared for Death............. 188 
Procrastination—Fatal......... 194 
Profession and Practice......... 256 
Promise—Claiming God’s....... 94 
MOUND), hl ca alee EN ode 79 
Promises—Claiming............ 182 
Prosperity—Danger of.......... 257 
Providence—God’s............. 93 
PCM LOW 2 a eke Ve mee ares s,4 194 
Crate ot Wierey eo ale Ue b/s 85 
Redeemed by Blood............ 272 
Redeemed by Christ............ 40 
Redemption—Understanding.... 272 
Refuge—Insufficient............ 236 
Ce 6 1a oe ne i 276 
Regeneration and Education..... 276 
Rejecting the Great Physician.... 194 
Religion—Counterfeit.......... 229 
Religion—Formal.............. 151 
Religion—Practical............. 58 
BGHSION-—ITUG. 6 ee deca es 151 
Religious Butter’... cS S. I51 
Pete DIACKOT 6... te sere ck wean. 229 
Repentance—Death-Bed........ 277 
Repentance—Death-Bed ........ 277 
Repentance—Individual........ 278 
Repentance—Leading to........ 278 
Repentance—Tardy............ 279 
Repentance—Tears of......5.... 279 
Repented Sins to Be Forgotten... 278 
Reset Berinnites. . oa ye 306 
Resolutions—Edwards’......... 152 
Responsibility—Evading........ 237 
POPRUIOI ION GAS hh bol MR ee aie ate 257 
“Resurrected Lifes 00.6 300040. 281 
Resurrection and Science........ 280 
Resurrection—Belief in......... 281 
Raeurrection Body...) 0.2: 3.90% 280 
Resurrection—Comfort of....... 282 
Resurrection Necessary......... 282 
evival Always Possible........ 284 
Revival—Beginning of.......... 285 
Revival—Needed.............. 285 
Revival—sSource of............. 285 
Revival—The Needed.......... 286 
Revivals—Excitement of........ 286 
Reward—The Master’s......... 237 


Riches—Failure of............. 257 


Riches—Fool and.............. 
Riches in Glory). 53/7. 08 a ees 
Riches—Undeserved............ 
Riches—Unrealized............. 
Righteous—Robes of........... 
Righteousness—Appetite for..... 
Righteousness—Garments of... .. 
Righteousness—Hunger for...... 
Ruroous Retuges 6270s os wai 


sacrifice and Song.............. 
sacrifice Appreciated........... 
Sacrifice—Christ-Like.......... 
Sacrince for God le. ae tela ae 
sacrifice—Joy of. .........0.04. 
Sainthood—Attaining........... 
Sainthood Deferred............. 


walvation by Sacrifice........... 
Salvation—Concern for......... 
Salvation—God’s Power in...... 
Salvation—Missing............. 
Salvation—Refusing............ 
Salvation—Substitutes for....... 
Salvation Through Sacrifice...... 
Salvation—Uttermost.......... 
Salvation—Wholesale........... 
Salvation—Working Out........ 
SROUICS POT 04 Uti ce bg Wee 


Satan—Selfishness of........... 
Pbaee CoMtI ty) ACAD A. cia tne 
eter  artner, foi os ee nee 
CLs wa gd ak: 6:4 ee a Re Dee Ree? 
PUTS Sh LAIST 8 cate wl rear ek 
paved Dy a Songuikle fois. wale Fa 6 
Saved by Destruction of Works. . 
Baved From Deathoareiien ensues: 
Baved of Unsaved es .cnu waa owes 
paving, Knowledge f ..i ays ee aeee 
SOL GEE abe 0] F | RR MOP ost | gree eta Bie! 
pawine. the Lowly 2: oh es epee 
Saviour—Discovery of.......... 
Saviour—Searching for.......... 
Sa ViOUrs— 1 WO Ls fei ae we new age 
Saviour—A Great.............. 
meardor Honor... o. By eouvel vee 
Secret of Strength... ..5........ 
SSCLEs GIS. artis Gaiters 
Secure Foundation............. 
Security—Daily.........: ee 
Security of Believers. ........ 
Security of Believers :..2) 000°.) .45 
Seeine Lary) yu. O ee a) caleaale 
Seeker—Persistent............. 


342 

PAGE 
Sell— Clothing)... Ws weenie 301 
ELE ACOTLFONs Wiss dst hioaivatet eats 195 
creole UM Ah ( 9. RUD SUP PIP EN, GRU ge Bek ~ 303 
seli—Freedom From.).........- 302 
Seite udement. inte eine wise aay 
DAL LeSE Le Wh wtp hakiese Sebel dhe er eielld bain 303 
Selt-—-Love of y ities 2 yh ls ye ome 302 
Self-Righteousness Fatal........ 307 
Del uliCi|n ey fs Vu eae ate 304 
Selfishness—Folly of............ 174 
Selfishness—Reward of......... 287 
Sentiment—Christian........... 143 
DELIV Erk ree too kG Lage eae 125 
Service—Abundant............. 125 
Service—Continuous........... 126 
pervice-——Double )..01:4 ee ay nes 126 
Senvice—Double... .jde. ce dss 126 
pervicer—earlessi ho avoune Udi) 126 
Service—Forgotten............. 127 
Service—Greatness of. (......... 127 
Service--Humbie ler 127 
Service—Intelligent............ 127 
Service—Jesus Demands........ 128 
eEVICOOT LOVE! Wendin GL wie wats 245 
service—pacrificial. 2.0.0... 00.0% 174 
Service—Unselfish.............. 128 
pervice--Unselfish . .)20). 0 Sud 128 
Sabre LOrVinie avn: (ys Gael cae 217 
Stilence-—Criminal iii oda: 220 
Bience—-Crgiden? Cho boa 307 
Simplicity of Salvation.......... 295 
ROD HCIOY Wins 115 uli dain see ee 221 
itive | DIseaRset lait. iit as ea 307 
sin-A ge No Cure forgiigi. . ei: 309 
Sin and Forgiveness............ 308 
Sin Against the Holy Ghost...... 326 
iti<— Danishatier) WS) cS at i, 310 
Serr Bonds Glide isi awe eee 310 
Sin—Breaking With. .....i0.... 310 
Se ren OF i iy ated We bs. & 310 
SFA apm Uo a VL RO AE a 871 
oin--Classifving oo oa, 311 
Sin—Confession of............. Bhi 
Sinn VO VETER Ws Wiulaindind ae'cist sv: 312 
Sit COVELER sa pu dierent za 
Sin—Defilement of............. 313 
oin——-Definition ‘of fy ce 313 
Sin egrades Wi ation Hakan.) 308 
sin-~Delusions Of iA ised) ue loin aia 
Site Depth Ok yyy 2 ta rss wet eds 313 
Sin—Destruction of............ 314 
Sin-—Destructive 1) seuesen te he 314 
Sin—Entanglements of......... 315 
Sin Fotnd Out.) 67 ieee al 308 
Sin—Freedom From......../... 315 
sin Lenores' Fences. o/s ies 308 
einin Gontrol: 1109.2 ane eae ate 309 
Sin-—Killine Cause.ob. au 316 
epithe OF 6), ae ici ode 316 


TOPICAL INDEX 


PAGE 
Sin. Not Forsaken... ../)o.0 Wan 309 
min of Covetoushess:.. ylaaee een 309 
sin—-Playing With...).. aie eee 316 
Sin-——Poison, Of 3.5.52) ce 317 
‘Sin--Prizé of 1G. a eer 317 
Sin Revealed if vk Ree 309 
bin—Kevealed \\).\, 2) ae 317 
Sin—Revealed..... .. 4.0). 20a 318 
oin—-Revelation OL: ¢i.,.51ee eee 318 
Siti-Secret.. ys.) iho Ae 318 
ein——sick of... Fa 319 
Sin—Slavery Of). yi | eee 319 
Sin—Sting of iyi ee 319 
Sin—Tomb Of; . c/s). 2). Lee 320 
pin+—Tragedy Ofs tn nia eee 320 
Sin—Wages of) 25.09.42 pu eeee 320 
Sin—Wages' of 2... 2. a ee 320 
Sin-—W ages) of)... 3.05) 321 
Sinful Parents ).u.7. 0. oie yeeee 321 
Sinful Silence. ;)) . 02g eee 322 
Sinner—Lifting the............. 85 
Sinner Needs God 210). eee 326 
sinner or Saint. (9 00 ee 
Sinners Called. G4 oa eae 345 
Sinner’s Fear 2. a6 yey bee ce ee 323 
Sinners—God’s Love for........ 323 
Sinner’s Ignorance... 1). Saas 300 
Sinners—Picture of. ............ 323 
Sinners—Third Class. ......./.. 429 
Sins-——-Big’ and Little: ayaa 324 
Sins—Confessing Other’s........ 311 
Sins——Horgotten ./, ss... eee 324 
Sinse+Hidden {7.\. Saaaeeee ag 324 
sins=+Little joc): 0 Se 324 
Sins—Little: : i. ke ee 324 
Sin’s' Remedy ./s.' 9 nue 325 
Sins—Reserved.... ... 2.244 Jean 325 
Sins—Secret 5. a. Ske 325 
Sins— Secret y\71 a le eae 325 
Soiled —Slightly .o. ie 326 
Son—Lost . 544)... Le ae 328 
Sorrow--—parictified / 1.4 Ase 128 
Soul---A: Ehurigny) oi ae 329 
sotd—A Lost. p.)2 9.) i: ee 329 
Soul Anchored, 250), 20) Pope 328 
Soul—Bankruptey 2.) aU yee 329 
Soul——Contest for 1/4 hy a ae 329 
Soul-—Cry of the .i..0) 20 sae 330 
Soul-Destroying Greed......... 258 
poul-—Purchased; i... J2.haeee 330 
soul—Restoration of. .........% 153 
Soul—Riches of the. ........444 331 
Soul—Save One: . .. <4 ee 331 
Soul—Starving the. ..........0, 331 
Soul—Value of Humblest........ 331 
Soul——W thes of Jyh 445. we 332 
Souls—Hand-Picked............ 129 
Souls-—Humery . ds. )) sci. oe 
Souls——-Ignorance. of 5. ci ae 330 


TOPICAL INDEX 


PAGE 

Souls—Rescue of............... 332 
Souls—Stewards of............. 332 
Souls—Winning................ 333 
_ Sowing and Reaping............ 237 
_ Speech—Faulty, Effective....... 295 
PORCH FTANIC.). os > kav nw shale 195 
Speech—Guarded.............. 199 
Speech—Slow of............... 221 
Spirit—Candle of.............. I12 
Setter riit Of. 5 i ieee hae II2 
Spirit—Quenching the.......... 112 
Spirit—Warning of............. 113 
Spirit—Witness of the.......... 113 
Spiritual Asphyxiation.......... 153 
Sa UR BA se at Na 107 
Sparitnal Education... .......3 276 
Seeieual Warfare. .\. spied sabe ts 301 
Steward—A Good.............. 258 
RPE IOTD toss ain tek dee 43 41 
Stmenns ror Christ). he); 80 
Surrender—Complete........... 174 
Sword of the Word............. 55 
Sympathy—Daring........:.... 59 
Sympathy—Wise.............. 129 
Temptation—Escaped From..... 213 
Temptation—Yielding to........ 214 
Temptations—Removing........ 214 
fic Ts) SCS 304 
Testimony—Best.............. 221 
Testimony—Effective........... 222 
Testimony—Fearless........... 222 
‘Lestimony—-LOst . lea ede 223 
Testimony—Plain.........005.. 223 
Testimony—Repeated.......... 223 
Testimony—Value of........... 223 
EULA eer toy es cia) oo eed 64 
THO BO be PEAVED) oi keke, 141 
The General Confession. ........ 167 
The Indwelling God............ 95 
The Memory of a Mother....... 270 
The Motherhood Ideal.......... 270 
The Old-Fashioned Parents...... 117 
Lnere Leno Death 20. oi Ge 189 
The Song of a Heathen......... 81 
Abe da ep ne et Pe 0 211 
Time—Redeem the............. 129 
Time—The Accepted........... 195 
UMTS TENN a besa uae sing Be 282 
Tomb Robbed of Terror........ 282 
Tongue—Unconsecrated........ 174 
AN RR OIC Ts wie ach old i's che pints MEMS Ae 196 
Transforming Grace............ 97 
Transgression Forgiven......... 86 


Treasirer Lets 656 6 1 6 biaiad der 259 


Treasury—Jesus Beholding 
Tribulation—Joyful in 
True Greatness 
Trust—Necessity of 
Trust—Perfect 
Truth—Awaking to 
Truth—Perfect 
Truth—Searching for 
Two Religions 


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Unbelief—Reason of 
Unfaithfulness of God’s Stewards. 153 
Unheeded Warnings 
Union in the Spirit 
Unknown—Perils of the 
Unselfish Living 


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Victory Over Odds 
Vision—Hindered 
Vision of the Kingdom 
Voice—A Saving 


Wanderer—Seeking the 
Warning—Unheeded 
Watchfulness—Duty of 
Weak—Helping the 
Well-Doing—Steadfast 


Wills Weak and Wobbly 
Winning Souls 
Witness—A Good 


Witnesses—Standing 
Witnesses—Unlettered 
Witnessing for Christ 
Witnessing Hands 
Word—A Cheering 
Word in Season 


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World—Forsaking 
Worldly Wisdom 
Worry—Cure for 
Worship—Hero 
Worship—Hero 
Wounds—Pleading 
Writing—God’s 


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Giieie et Lait 


ee 
in Hastie 2b 
’ d (i, yi ae 
He fe PA rif ye ARATE se 


Madani 


hati 


ars iM 

ign * 

aati 1} rn vt 
j Whip 
Aa aa 





